Three dozen prisoners on federal death row will now be serving life in prison without parole after President Joe Biden commuted their sentences on Monday.
The Biden administration announced on Monday that 37 of 40 people who had been sentenced to execution will have their lives spared, The Associated Press reported.
Three men remain on death row — Dylan Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Robert Bowers.
Roof was convicted of killing nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. Tsarnaev was responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. Bowers shot and killed 11 members of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018.
Those who now have life sentences include people who killed police and members of the military, participated in deadly bank robberies or deadly drug deals or people who killed guards in federal prisons, the AP reported.
Biden has campaigned on ending the federal death penalty, The New York Times reported. He had the Justice Department pause federal executions after Congress did not pass legislation to do away with federal executions.
“I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement. “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.”
“I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level. In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted,” Biden’s statement ended.
The move came less than a month before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump has said he wanted capital punishment to be expanded.
During Trump’s first term, 13 federal prisoners were executed, the Times reported.
Among the 37 prisoners whose sentences were commuted on Monday, two prisoners are from Georgia.
Anthony George Battle was sentenced in 1997 in the death of a Georgia prison guard. Meier Jason Brown was sentenced in 2003 in the stabbing death of a postal worker.
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