As President Biden's term ends, he is reportedly considering revoking the sentences of most, if not all, of the 40 men on the federal government's death row.
The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that the move would derail President-elect Trump's plan to reverse the killings as he takes office in January.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, who oversees federal prisons, recommended that Biden commute all but a few harsh sentences, the sources said.
The agency reported that possible exceptions could include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 2013 Boston Marathon bomber who killed three and injured more than 250; Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people in the 2018 attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh; and Dylann Roof, who killed nine in 2015 at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
TRUMP EXPECTED TO END BIDEN-ERA DEATH PENALTY MONITORING, EXPAND MORE PRISONS FOR WOMEN
President Biden talks about his administration's economic playbook and the future of the American economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Those who were able to see their death sentences commuted to life in prison included a former marine who killed two teenage girls and later a female Marine officer, a Las Vegas man convicted of kidnapping and killing a 12-year-old girl, and a Chicago podiatrist who killed. he shot and killed a patient so he could not testify in a Medicare fraud investigation and two men were convicted in a kidnapping-for-ransom scheme that led to the murders of five Russians. and Georgian immigrants.
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The move came after Biden, a lifelong Catholic, spoke with Pope Francis on Thursday. In his weekly prayer, Pope Francis called for the exchange of condemned American prisoners.
The president's decision could come by Christmas, some of the sources said. The source noted that the biggest question is the scope of the exchange of prisoners sentenced to death.
President Biden speaks at the podium (AP)
Biden is the first president to publicly oppose the death penalty, and his 2020 campaign website announced that he would “work to pass legislation to end the death penalty at the federal level and encourage states to follow the federal government's lead.”
In January 2021, Biden first considered an executive order, sources familiar with the matter told The Associated Press, but the White House did not issue one.
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Six months later, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment to continue learning. Less action means there have been no federal assassinations under Biden.
