President Joe Biden announced on Monday that he is commuting the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life imprisonment, reducing the number of federal prisoners awaiting execution to just three as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office next month.
"Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole," Biden announced in a statement released Monday.
However, Biden did not commute the sentences of three individuals convicted of mass shootings or terrorism: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, involved in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; Dylann Roof, a White nationalist who killed nine people at a historically Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; and Robert Bowers, responsible for the 2018 attack on Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue that claimed 11 lives.
"These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder," Biden said, referring to his Justice Department's halt on federal executions.
Most of the 37 individuals whose sentences were commuted on Monday were convicted of lower-profile crimes, such as murders related to drug trafficking or the deaths of prison guards and other inmates.
"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 in his statement. "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 decision comes as opponents of the death penalty prepare for Trump's potential return to the White House. During his 2024 campaign, Trump signaled plans to reinstate federal executions and expand the list of crimes eligible for the death penalty under federal law, which currently includes murder, espionage, and treason.
