With just a few weeks left in his term, President Joe Biden may commute sentences for the 40 inmates currently on death row, which includes Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
The move comes following pressure from religious and civil rights groups, who have been urging the president to commute death row sentences, which they believe are immoral. The Vatican also displayed support for commutations—last month, Pope Francis prayed for mercy for death row inmates in the US in his weekly address.
The death row inmates who could see their sentences commuted include a man who kidnapped and murdered a 12-year old girl, two men who kidnapped and murdered five immigrants and a doctor who shot a patient to keep them from testifying against him, per the WSJ.
Republicans have expressed their ire at the potential commutations. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said: "It would mean that progressive politics is more important to the president than the lives taken by these murderers."
While the president weighs commuting the sentences of all death row inmates, Attorney General Merrick Garland suggested he make exceptions for cases of terrorism and hate crimes. Exceptions could include Tsarnaev, as well as Robert Bowers, the Tree of Life Synagogue shooter, and Dylann Roof, the Charleston church shooter.
The president's decision may be finalized before Christmas, sources told the WSJ. If the president opts for commutations, they would stymie the incoming Trump administration's plans to continue executions.
A number of activist groups have spoken out against the death sentence, increasing their efforts in the months leading up to the Trump administration takeover. In the past few months, groups have sent post cards to the White House with the words "Stop Trump Executions."
Rev. Sharon Risher, whose mother was killed in the Charleston church shooting and is board chairman of the group Death Penalty Action, spoke out against the death penalty. "The death penalty does not help victim family members. It doesn't give us any sense of justice for the person to be executed," she said.
Yasmin Cader, ACLU deputy legal director, joined in the call for cessation of the death penalty. "We are absolutely engaging in pulling all the levers that we can," she said.
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