BBC reports that US President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of most of the 40 federal death row inmates. Instead of the death penalty, they will serve life in prison without parole. Donald Trump, who will take office in January, cannot cancel this decision.
"I condemn these killers, mourn the innocent victims, and offer my condolences to their families who have suffered immense loss," Biden's statement said. And now, President, I firmly believe that we must end the death penalty at the federal level."
Biden's pardon decision does not apply to three death row inmates convicted of terrorist attacks or hate-motivated mass murder. They are Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; Dylann Roof, who shot nine black worshipers in a Charleston church in 2015; and Robert Bowers, who attacked a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 and killed 11 worshipers.
Biden's decision does not apply to those sentenced to death by state courts, whose number, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, reaches about 2,250.
During Biden's presidency, more than 70 executions were carried out at the state level.
