U.S. President Joe Biden, who is set to retire next month, has commuted the sentences of 37 death row inmates in the country.
According to major foreign media including CNN on the 23rd (local time), President Biden issued a statement announcing the commutation of sentences for 37 of the 40 federal death row inmates to life imprisonment without parole. The majority of the inmates whose sentences were commuted had been sentenced to death for charges such as murder.
However, three death row inmates were excluded from this commutation: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bombing suspect in 2013; Dylann Roof, the South Carolina black church shooter in 2015; and Robert Bowers, the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter in 2018.
This commutation came less than a month before the inauguration of Donald Trump, who had expressed strong support for the death penalty. President Biden opposes the death penalty.
In his statement, President Biden said, "I condemn the murderers and mourn the victims of their heinous acts," but also explained the background of the commutations by stating, "Based on my conscience, public defenders, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the vice president, and my experience as the current president, I have a stronger conviction than ever that the federal death penalty should be abolished."
On the 12th, President Biden also pardoned 39 individuals and commuted the sentences of about 1,500 others. According to CNN, this is known to be the largest single instance of pardons and commutations in U.S. history.
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