President-elect Donald Trump has commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal death row inmates to life imprisonment. This move spares the lives of those convicted of killings, including police and military officers, those on federal land, those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, and guards or prisoners.

Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”The Biden administration in 2021 announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment to study the protocols used, which suspended executions during Biden’s term. But Biden actually had promised to go further on the issue in the past, pledging to end federal executions without the caveats for terrorism and hate-motivated, mass killings.While running for president in 2020, Biden’s campaign website said he would “work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level, and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example.”

must face the death penalty for their wicked actions.” He later pledged to execute narcotics and human smugglers, and complimented China’s stricter prosecution of drug dealers. During his first term as president, Trump also supported the death sentence for drug dealers. During Trump’s first term, there were 13 federal executions, the most by any president in modern history, and some of them may have occurred quickly enough to contribute to the spread of the coronavirus at the federal death row facility in Indiana.

During the COVID-19 epidemic, 39 people convicted of nonviolent offences were released from prison and placed in home confinement, making it the greatest single-day act of clemency in contemporary history. The news came on the heels of Biden’s post-election pardon for his son Hunter on federal gun and tax charges, after previously stating that he would not give one, causing outrage in Washington. The pardon also raised concerns about whether he would grant broad preemptive pardons to administration officials and other allies who the White House believes may be unfairly targeted by Trump’s second administration.

Last week, the White House announced that Biden, a practicing Catholic, will visit Italy on his final foreign trip. Pope Francis has recently called for prayers for U.S. death row inmates in hopes of commuting their sentences. Martin Luther King III, who publicly urged Biden to change the death sentence life imprisonment.The president has done what is right here,” Oliverio said in a statement also issued by the White House, “and what is consistent with the faith he and I share.”