Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates on Monday, December 23, reducing their penalties to life imprisonment without parole.
The decision, announced just two days before Christmas, included individuals convicted of heinous crimes, such as child killings and mass murders.
The move is part of Biden’s broader effort to end the use of capital punishment at the federal level, the White House said.
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In a statement accompanying the announcement, Biden, 82, expressed his condemnation of the violent acts committed by those receiving clemency.
He stated, “Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss.”
Biden explained that his stance against the death penalty is rooted in his career experiences, including his time as a public defender, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Vice President, and now President. “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted,” he added.
BREAKING: Biden commutes the sentences of 37 out of 40 inmates on federal death row pic.twitter.com/dLr9HkThcz
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The decision affects some of the most notorious offenders on federal death row.
Among them is Thomas Sanders, who in 2010 murdered 12-year-old Lexis Roberts in Louisiana after killing her mother during a road trip near the Grand Canyon.
Another recipient, Anthony Battle, bludgeoned a prison guard to death with a hammer in 1994 while serving a life sentence for the 1987 rape and murder of his wife, a U.S. Marine, at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Also on the list is Jorge Avila-Torrez, convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering two young girls, Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9, in a Chicago suburb in 2005, and later killing Navy officer Amanda Snell in 2009.
Iouri Mikhel, who kidnapped and murdered five immigrants after demanding ransom payments, and Kaboni Savage, convicted of orchestrating or committing 12 murders as a Philadelphia drug dealer, also received commutations.
James Roane Jr., involved in 11 murders as a Richmond, Virginia drug dealer, was among those granted clemency.
However, three notable federal death row inmates were excluded from Biden’s clemency actions. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber, Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, and Dylann Roof, responsible for the deaths of nine churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, retained their death sentences.
This marks Biden’s latest use of presidential clemency powers.
Earlier in December, he pardoned his son Hunter Biden, erasing convictions related to gun felonies and tax fraud.
On December 12, he commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 individuals temporarily released during the COVID-19 pandemic, including high-profile offenders such as Josephine Gray, known as the “Black Widow,” and Rita Crundwell, who embezzled $54 million from Dixon, Illinois.
Biden’s actions have drawn mixed reactions.
While supporters view them as steps toward criminal justice reform, critics have questioned the timing and scope of the decisions.
Some cannabis advocates remain particularly frustrated, citing Biden’s failure to fulfill a 2019 campaign promise to release all individuals imprisoned for marijuana offenses.
His October 2022 mass pardon for simple marijuana possession, which affected no incarcerated individuals, was criticized by some as inadequate.
However, the implications of these decisions are likely to fuel debate well into the next administration.
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