Joe Biden commutes 37 of 40 federal death sentences before Trump takes office
India TodayUS President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the sentences for 37 out of 40 federal inmates on death row, converting them to life in prison without parole before he hands over power to President-elect Donald Trump on January 20. Biden, who ran for president opposing the death penalty, put federal executions on hold when he took office in January 2021. It leaves out three of the most well-known men on federal death row: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for his involvement in the bombing at the Boston Marathon finish line in 2013; Dylann Roof, convicted for the shooting spree at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015; and, Robert Bowers, who was convicted for the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018. Biden's decision also does not affect the nearly 2,200 death row prisoners convicted in state courts, as he holds no authority over such executions.