U.S. President Joe Biden commuted the death penalty of 37 prisoners with federal death sentences on Monday, keeping three people on death row: the Tree of Life Synagogue shooter, the shooter behind an attack on the Mother Emanuel AME Church, and the Boston Marathon bomber.
Biden expressed opposition to the federal death penalty during his 2020 campaign and issued a moratorium on federal capital punishment in 2021, except for in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.
“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,” Biden said about the sentences he commuted.
“But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, 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.”
The commutations convert the death sentences into life in prison.
Read more: What does Judaism say about the death penalty?
Steven Cheung, communications director for president-elect Donald Trump called the commutations a “slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones.”
Some family members of the victims of those who had their sentences commuted condemned the decision as well.
Heather Turner, whose mother was killed in a robbery at a South Carolina bank in 2017, condemned the decision, saying that it was made “without even talking to the victims, without any regard for what we’ve been through, what we’re going through.”
Others expressed support for the decision.
Donnie Oliverio, a retired police officer whose partner was shot and killed while on duty, said he felt that the decision was right and consistent with his faith. He added, “Putting to death the person who killed my police partner and best friend would have brought me no peace.”
Trump to resume and expand federal executions in his second term
Over the past century, federal executions have been pretty rare. From 1988 until 2016, only three executions were recorded. During Trump’s first term, however, 13 federal executions were conducted within seven months.
Activists against the death penalty had expressed concerns that Trump could move forward with executions for the dozens of people who were on death row once he takes office again in January.
Trump has repeatedly said he will resume federal executions when he takes office. He also has expressed support for expanding federal capital punishment to apply to additional people, such as child rapists, drug traffickers, and migrants who kill U.S. citizens.
On Tuesday, Trump reiterated his promise that as soon as he’s inaugurated, he will direct the Justice Department to “vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters.”
The Tree of Life synagogue shooting
Before Biden’s decision was announced, families and friends of death row victims expressed concerns about reports he was considering such a move, including the families of the victims of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting.
“The people who want the clemency didn’t sit in the courtroom and look at his face and see the glee when he saw all the horror that he wreaked in the building that day,” said Carol Black, a survivor of the shooting who lost her brother in the attack.
In October 2018, Robert Bowers murdered 11 Jews at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in the deadliest attack on a local Jewish community in American history.
Bowers was a white supremacist who obsessed over many conspiracy theories about Jews and Muslims, among a slew of antisemitic, Islamophobic, and racist beliefs. On social media, he referred to Jews as the “children of Satan,” and accused Jews and Muslims of working against white Americans and “Western Civilization.”
In a social media post published right before the attack, Bowers specifically mentioned the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), which advocates for refugees, and claimed that the organization “likes to bring invaders in that kill our people,” echoing the antisemitic great replacement theory. Some congregants at the Tree of Life Synagogue were affiliated with HIAS.
In 2023, a federal jury in Pittsburgh unanimously agreed to sentence Bowers to death.
The Mother Emanuel AME Church attack
In June 2015, Dylann Roof, a white supremacist, murdered nine people at a bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Roof had posted a racist manifesto online before the attack, full of hateful content against African Americans, Jews, and other minorities.
Michael Graham, who lost his sister in the attack, welcomed Biden’s decision not to commute Roof’s sentence, telling the Associated Press that Roof is the kind of dangerous and evil person the death penalty is intended for.
Rev. Sharon Richer, who lost her mother in the attack, criticized Biden, however, saying the families of the victims were being left in limbo and were forced to relive the massacre every time an appeal was filed against Roof’s sentence.
The Boston Marathon bombing
In April 2013, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev planted two pressure cooker bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring hundreds of others. The two killed an MIT policeman while on the run and then another police officer in a shootout. Tamerlan was killed in the shootout, but Dzhokhar was later caught and arrested.
Dzhokhar said he and his brother carried out the attack due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and intended to carry out additional attacks.
In June 2015, Dzhokhar was sentenced to death. His lawyers have made repeated appeals in an attempt to overturn the sentence.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey welcomed Biden’s decision not to commute Dzhokhar’s sentence, saying, “Tsarnaev will continue to face the death penalty and be held accountable. But especially right now — this holiday season — I think about the families, the victims. Think about law enforcement, first responders who bravely responded in that moment.”
Carol Downing, whose family members were wounded in the attack, welcomed the decision as well, saying, “I was very happy to see that he had not pardoned him.”
