In response to President Joe Biden’s decision to reduce the sentences of almost all federal death row inmates, President-elect Donald Trump reiterated his promise on Tuesday to “vigorously pursue” the death penalty.
Trump also contributed to the criticism and acclaim that have been directed at Biden’s historic action.
Trump wrote, “Makes no sense,” on his social media account, Truth Social. “Friends and family are even more heartbroken. They find it unbelievable that this is taking place.
“As soon as I am inaugurated, I will direct the Justice Department to vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters,” he stated. “We will be a Nation of Law and Order again!”
37 of the 40 federal prisoners on death row will have their sentences commuted to life in prison without the possibility of release, Biden stated Monday, citing his decision as being “guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender.”
A wide range of criminal justice advocacy organizations, former prosecutors, and corporate executives filed letters to the White House requesting that he commute the sentences prior to Trump’s inauguration, sparking weeks of speculation about the move. Biden, a Catholic, was also urged by Pope Francis this month to commute the sentences; he is expected to meet with the pope in the final days of his administration next month.
In a declarationThe president stated on Monday that “in good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.” He also said that the commutations are in line with a moratorium on executions that his administration put in place after he entered office.
However, Biden also made a point of refusing to commute the sentences of three federal death row inmates who were involved in mass killings: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who carried out a bombing attack at the Boston Marathon in 2013; Dylann Roof, who shot nine people at a historically Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; and Robert Bowers, who killed eleven people in the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018.
Even though the other 37 prisoners were spared, Biden continued, saying, “Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss.”
After his first term, when his Justice Department executed 13 federal prisoners—a record not seen since Grover Cleveland’s administration in the late 1800s—Trump ran on a platform of extending the federal death penalty.
Since then, Trump has stated his desire to extend the death penalty to include individuals guilty of drug and people trafficking, immigrants who murder American residents and law police, and child rapists. How the president-elect would accomplish this is unknown, but legal experts contend it would need congressional backing and be fraught with constitutional issues.
However, opponents of the death penalty have stated that they are paying attention to what Trump has said.
Meanwhile, Biden is under criticism for his death row commutations from law enforcement agencies, some victim families, and his political rivals.
“We thought the timing was despicable,” Tim Timmerman, whose daughter Rachel, 19, was murdered in 1997, told Grand Rapids, Michigan-based NBC affiliate WOOD.
Marvin Gabrion, the convicted killer of his daughter, is also the main suspect in three other deaths and is suspected of killing Rachel Timmerman’s infant daughter, whose body was never discovered. Gabrion is 71 years old now.
“Where’s the fairness in merely providing him with a comfortable prison bed to pass away in? “It wasn’t me that gave Gabrion the death penalty,” Timmerman continued. It was the jury, and I always think it’s important to point that out that the jury are the people who sentenced Gabrion to the death penalty.”
The daughter of Donna Major, one of two South Carolina bank employees killed by federal death row inmate Brandon Council in 2017, slammed Council’s commutation as being unfair and an “abuse of power.”
“My mom’s murder is being used as a political game piece by a president who isn’t even fit for office,” Heather Turnerposted Tuesdayon Facebook. “I stand by my stance that Joe Biden has blood on his hands.”
Some people feel that Biden did not go far enough by not commuting all federal death row inmates and the four inmates on U.S. military death row, even though he is being praised by anti-death penalty organizations that have long argued that racial disparities in who is sentenced to death and executed taint the death penalty process.
The Rev. Sharon Risher, the board chair of Death Penalty Action whosemother, Ethel Lance, and cousins, Tywanza Sanders and Susie Jackson,were among those killed in the 2015 Charleston shooting, said in a statement that “politics has gotten in the way of mercy.”
“Mr. President, victims cannot be ranked. I am begging you to finish the job, not only with the three men left on federal death row, but also with those on the military death row,” Risher said. “There’s still time.”
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