US President Joe Biden converted the death sentences of a total of 37 individuals into life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, just before the end of his term in office. “These conversions are at odds with the moratorium my government has imposed on federal executions, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murders” the President said on Monday.
Although he condemned the perpetrators, mourned the victims of their heinous crimes, and mourned all the families who had suffered an unimaginable and irreparable loss, “guided by my conscience and my experience as a defense attorney, 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” Biden added.
He could not in good conscience stand idly by as a new administration resumed executions that he had stopped. Of the 40 federal death row inmates, 37 are affected by the decision, with Biden excluding three individuals from the conversion of their sentences. The future US President, Donald Trump, is a supporter of the death penalty. In Trump’s first term, 13 federal executions were carried out.