"A Fair and Effective Justice System
"I've dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system.""Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole.""These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.""Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, [I] grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss."U.S. President Joe Biden
| AP Photo |
After having forgiven his son for criminal offences, U.S. President, before leaving office in January has continued his acts of clemency. A Monday announcement informed the public that he has decided to commute sentences of 37 of the 40 people on death row, to convert their punishment from the criminal justice system to life imprisonment. In so doing, preempting incoming President Donald Trump from permitting these capital punishments for murder to proceed.
The President's decision spares the lives of those who had been convicted for murder. The killing of police and military officers, people on federal land and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, along with the killing of guards or prisoners in federal facilities, are included in those now released from the death penalty, ordained to spend the rest of their natural lives behind bars. Some among them might prefer death, to the endless living death now before them.
Three federal inmates have had their death sentences reserved to take place as scheduled. Dylan Roof who killed nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in 2015; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the younger of two Chechen brothers responsible for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, and Robert Bowers, who shot to death 11 congregants at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.
| Robert Bowers, Dylan Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev |
In 2021 the Biden administration had announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment while the protocols were under study. That moratorium suspended executions throughout Mr. Biden's term in office. Now he fulfilled his pledge to end federal executions without caveats for terrorism and hate-motivated mass killings.
When Mr. Biden campaigned for the presidency in 2020 his website claimed his intention to "work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level".
Such decision-making is now passing to other hands with other views on the death penalty and life imprisonment President-elect Donald Trump, a proponent of expanding capital punishment, stands to take office on January 20 of the incoming new year. There is much that will undergo a reversal, this issue among them.
| President-elect Donald Trump speaks at AmericaFest, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri) |
",,,Guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice-president, and now president, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level."U.S. President Joe Biden
Labels: Commuting Death Sentences, Life Imprisonment, President-Elect Donald Trump, U.S. President Joe Biden
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, December 25, 2024
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