Biden commutes sentences of nearly every prisoner on federal death row

President Biden on Monday commuted the sentences of 37 people on federal death row, leaving only three “hard cases” before President-elect Trump takes the White House on Jan. 20.

The 37 prisoners given commuted sentences saw their sentences classified from execution to life without the possibility of parole.

The president, in announcing the commutations, said he is “more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”

Some of those pardoned include Billie Jerome Allen, who was sentenced to death in 1998, Carlos David Caro, who has been on death row for more than 15 years, and Len Davis, who has been on death row for more than 25 years.

“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 in a statement.

“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,” he said.

The three death row inmates who aren’t included in Biden’s list on Monday include two notorious mass shooters, as well as the person who killed multiple people at the Boston Marathon, The New York Times reported.

Robert D. Bowers, who was the gunman at the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Dylann Roof, who opened fire in 2015 opened fire on Black parishioners at a Charleston, S.C., church, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is one of the two brothers who carried out the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon, all still can face execution.

Biden also received some pushback Monday over his decision, with critics calling the moves “politically convenient.”

“Once again, Democrats side with depraved criminals over their victims, public order, and common decency. Democrats can’t even defend Biden’s outrageous decision as some kind of principled, across-the-board opposition to the death penalty since he didn’t commute the three most politically toxic cases. Democrats are the party of politically convenient justice,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said on the social platform X.

Conservative host Hugh Hewitt questioned if Biden made the decision himself, based on his age and mental acuity.

Hewitt posted on X, “we all know President Biden is not mentally competent to make these decisions, and whoever did lacks even the minimum political courage to make it an actual expression of belief by commuting all 40.”

Biden’s decision comes less than a month before he leaves office. He took a jab at Trump in his announcement, saying, “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”

Trump, during the 2024 campaign, called for tougher criminal sentences for drug traffickers, like the death penalty, and he said in 2018 there should be the “ultimate penalty” for drug dealers.

Last week, the president announced pardons for 39 people and commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 others, setting a new daily record for clemency with a focus on those who were under home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biden’s pardons and commutations this month come as he has been under pressure to pardon more people after he granted one for his son Hunter Biden after insisting for more than a year that he would not.

The full list of those with their death row sentences reclassified is: Shannon Wayne Agofsky, Aquilia Marcivicci Barnette, Brandon Leon Basham, Anthony George Battle, Meier Jason Brown, Wesley Paul Coone Jr., Brandon Michael Council, Christopher Emory Cramer, Joseph Ebron, Ricky Allen Fackrell, Edward Leon Fields Jr., Chadrick Evan Fulks, Marvin Charles Gabrion II, Edgar Baltazar Garcia, Thomas Morocco Hager, Charles Michael Hall, Norris G. Holder, Richard Allen Jackson, Jurijus Kadamovas, Daryl Lawrence, Iouri Mikhel, Ronald Mikos, James H. Roane Jr., Julius Omar Robinson, David Anthony Runyon, Ricardo Sanchez Jr., Thomas Steven Sanders, Kaboni Savage, Mark Isaac Snarr, Rejon Taylor, Richard Tipton, Jorge Avila Torrez, Daniel Troya and Alejandro Enrique Ramirez Umana.

Updated at 9:16 a.m. EST