US President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 federal inmates on death row, replacing the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole. About this informs BBC.
Despite the large-scale commutation of sentences, Biden retained the death penalty for three inmates. They include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the masterminds of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Robert Bowers, the perpetrator of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, and Dylann Roof, who in 2015 killed nine black parishioners at Mother Emanuel AME Church in charlestoni
Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International welcomed the decision, calling it a step towards humanizing the justice system. Instead, Republicans expressed harsh criticism. Donald Trump’s communications director, Stephen Cheng, called the pardon “an insult to the victims and their families” and emphasized that Biden actually saved “the worst killers in the world.”
Texas Republican Congressman Chip Roy called the decision an “abuse of power” that obstructs fair justice. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton added that Democrats, including Biden, systematically choose to protect criminals over law-abiding citizens.
