"We must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level."

December 23, 2024 5:29 AM

Biden commutes most federal death sentences (WaPo), ahead of Trump's plan to resume federal executions (NYT) (WH statement, fact sheet)

Biden did not commute the sentences of three men who were involved in cases of terrorism or hate-fueled mass murder, including Robert Bowers, convicted for the 2018 mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue; Dylann Roof, convicted for the 2015 mass shooting at a Black church in Charleston, S.C.; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted of the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon (NPR).

posted by box (47 comments total)

Well, I did not think he'd do this. Excellent news, and a genuine act of conscience. For once, I'm fine with some of his Catholicism leaking in to his politics.
posted by theora55 at 5:39 AM on December 23 [39 favorites]

Amazing.
posted by joannemerriam at 5:48 AM on December 23 [4 favorites]

My whole life life this has always been the thing you want the President (or Governor) to do that they never do. I’m glad I lived to see it happen.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 6:24 AM on December 23 [23 favorites]

So Biden agrees that the death penalty is entirely appropriate for the worst offenders. Glad to see that principle further affirmed.
posted by MattD at 6:24 AM on December 23 [6 favorites]

Is this something that can be rescinded? Because you know he'll try doing that once he takes office.
posted by tommasz at 6:30 AM on December 23 [2 favorites]

I think should have been all federal death sentences: I don't believe the death penalty should be prt of the criminal justice system. (Edited to add "all".)
posted by skynxnex at 7:00 AM on December 23 [14 favorites]

The timeless and austere legal principle of, "but these three were in the national news."
posted by officer_fred at 7:01 AM on December 23 [26 favorites]

The president's power to pardon federal crimes other than impeachment is as clear and unfettered as anything in the constitution. It's hard to see how this could possibly be challenged.

Even if there were some esoteric grounds for the next administration to challenge it, I would guess those guys have little interest in doing anything that might limit the pardon power, given it's usefulness to provide effect immunity from prosecution for allies.

OTOH the right to citizenship by soil is also very clearly laid out in the 14th amendment, and TFG is talking about trying to subvert that, so who knows?
posted by Pemdas at 7:01 AM on December 23 [14 favorites]

Is this something that can be rescinded?


No. Once it is finalized a presidential pardon cannot be overturned or revoked.
posted by 1adam12 at 7:02 AM on December 23 [8 favorites]

Is a pardon the same as a commuted sentence?
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:11 AM on December 23 [4 favorites]

Leaving three murderous bigots, including a virulent racist and a virulent anti-Semite, to twist in the wind and forcing a Republican administration dependent on bigot votes to come up with a public rationale for either executing or not executing them is just gravy.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 7:13 AM on December 23 [46 favorites]

I imagine after getting burned on commuting the people on house arrest that Biden is being a little more selective on his blanket pardon and commutation powers.
posted by charred husk at 7:28 AM on December 23 [6 favorites]

He does get tired in the afternoon, I hear.
posted by Lemkin at 7:37 AM on December 23 [10 favorites]

This is great.
posted by tofu_crouton at 8:07 AM on December 23 [3 favorites]

This was definitely the right thing to do, and while I get the politics of the exceptions, I wish it had been ‘all’. It may be consistent with the policy but you can’t say it’s the principle
posted by TwoWordReview at 8:15 AM on December 23 [9 favorites]

Chef's kiss.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 8:32 AM on December 23 [2 favorites]

Is a pardon the same as a commuted sentence?

No; a pardon wipes out the conviction. The person, if serving time, is freed and there are no longer legal consequences to the conviction.

Commuting a sentence changes the punishment. The person was still convicted, and (as in this case) you can replace it with a lesser punishment.
posted by mark k at 8:36 AM on December 23 [8 favorites]

I hadn't realized that Biden was the best president of my lifetime until last summer, when some members of Congress came out and said so.

I am so grateful to him for every good thing he has done, and there are thousands.

I am especially grateful to him for this.

Thank you so much for posting this, box. I am avoiding news sites right now, and I am very glad to hear about this from you.
posted by kristi at 8:50 AM on December 23 [22 favorites]

... and thank you for linking directly to the White House statement and fact sheet.
posted by kristi at 8:50 AM on December 23 [1 favorite]

forcing a Republican administration dependent on bigot votes to come up with a public rationale for either executing or not executing them is just gravy.

I am pretty sure the only rationale needed for executing them is that was the sentence handed down by the court.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:10 AM on December 23 [2 favorites]

Maybe next he will pardon everyone at Guantanamo. Hopefully on January 19th, so that will be all over the news on the 20th.

(Hey, the last time I hoped Biden would do something it mostly came to pass, so maybe 🤞)
posted by TedW at 9:25 AM on December 23 [15 favorites]

While Biden catches criticism on Metafilter for not also pardoning/commuting 3 terrorists, he's catching flak from his own party for pardoning/commuting any death sentences at all (in addition to the expected Republican hollering). I guess it's a fitting conclusion to a presidency that seems uniquely thankless and caught in an endless cavalcade of no-win situations. Saying that as someone who has spent the last month and a half since the election pissed off that Biden and his administration seem to have just vanished instead of doing anything and everything they can to insulate the federal government against the abuses of a second Trump term that they, through their mistakes and misjudgments, are partially responsible for.
posted by Method Man at 9:55 AM on December 23 [19 favorites]

Is there a list somewhere of all these people who had their sentences commuted with details of what they were convicted of?
posted by spata at 10:08 AM on December 23

And now he needs to make the ERA inviolate.
posted by brujita at 10:16 AM on December 23 [5 favorites]

Yes, stop federal executions, Biden. But keep on arming and abetting genocide. Got it. It won't absolve his complicity.
posted by Fizzy Kimchi at 10:20 AM on December 23 [7 favorites]

Is there a list somewhere of all these people who had their sentences commuted with details of what they were convicted of?

Office of the Paardon Attorney
posted by TedW at 10:23 AM on December 23 [1 favorite]

I'm glad Biden did this. He should have done it 4 years ago and followed through with the rest of what was called for. There should be a safety net for both the people released and society in general in the form of rehabilitation to prevent recidivism and further harm to innocents. They're going to need housing, education, jobs, heath care, therapy.... Instead, the Orange Baboon will be raging and leaving them to twist in the wind.
posted by BlueHorse at 10:48 AM on December 23 [4 favorites]

Yes, stop federal executions, Biden. But keep on arming and abetting genocide. Got it. It won't absolve his complicity.

If the Catholic faith Biden professes is the real deal, he will, in the not distant future, find himself standing before the judgment of Christ - who I expect will not be impressed by Biden’s protestations of how “complicated” a situation Palestine was.
posted by Lemkin at 10:55 AM on December 23 [8 favorites]

The sentences are commuted so they are now sentenced to life in prison, they aren’t freed.
posted by waving at 10:55 AM on December 23 [9 favorites]

PARDON LUIGI YOU COWARD!

I'm glad he's doing these commutations, but last I heard he's actually PARDONed fewer people than other presidents. Which is kinda horseshit typical liberal "the system is right in its judgement and I will adhere to it no matter how unjust".
What is the jurisprudence that "forgives the punishment, but still forces a stain on a record of people in the books?"
posted by symbioid at 10:57 AM on December 23 [4 favorites]

To be clear, this is still an overall net positive, and not everyone *should* be pardoned, and commutation of death penalty is good, regardless. But I sure wish he did a lot more Pardons (esp. all non-violent drug offenses - though I'm not sure that's in the Federal wheelhouse).
posted by symbioid at 11:01 AM on December 23 [3 favorites]

What is the jurisprudence that "forgives the punishment, but still forces a stain on a record of people in the books?"

The people on federal death row mostly definitely did the crimes, and don't deserve a pardon, certainly not in Biden's view. These are murderers. The only question is whether the federal government should be in the business of killing as punishment. Not only are these people still recorded as murderers, they are going to be in prison for life, because the feds still think they're guilty.

esp. all non-violent drug offenses - though I'm not sure that's in the Federal wheelhouse

Biden already did many of those. There aren't that many in the federal system.
posted by BungaDunga at 11:06 AM on December 23 [10 favorites]

Is there a list somewhere of all these people who had their sentences commuted with details of what they were convicted of?

Well I saw Fox News was running every gory detail of the worst of the worst - with migrants front and center, of course.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 11:07 AM on December 23 [2 favorites]

Moments before deciding to commute their sentences, Joe looked at the list of people on Death Row, said "well this is malarkey" and put on his Dark Biden aviator sunglasses.
posted by otherchaz at 11:13 AM on December 23 [6 favorites]

Least surprising news ever, spineless pathetic democratic party leaders (Quigley - D Ill) shit on this, one of the few moral things that POS Biden has done.

Love the quotes as well, total weasel words fillowed by an "I dont like it, and Hunter Hunter Hunter". Nice that the dems, instead of fighting the incoming fascists are focused on taking up the Hunter beat, maybe they can go after Claudine Gay as well.
posted by WatTylerJr at 11:40 AM on December 23 [9 favorites]

esp. all non-violent drug offenses - though I'm not sure that's in the Federal wheelhouse

Biden already did many of those. There aren't that many in the federal system.

Not many possession cases in the federal system - probably a larger number of distribution cases that aren’t inherently violent. Though I’m sure plenty of those people did have some connection to violence in practice because realities of the black market. I don’t really have a clear point here.
posted by atoxyl at 12:12 PM on December 23 [1 favorite]

Anyway, this move is good. Honestly my first reaction to the headlines was just trying to guess who the three excluded would be. Not really a surprising list I suppose.
posted by atoxyl at 12:14 PM on December 23 [4 favorites]

If the Catholic faith Biden professes is the real deal, he will, in the not distant future, find himself standing before the judgment of Christ - who I expect will not be impressed by Biden’s protestations of how “complicated” a situation Palestine was.

That's... not the Catholic faith. You're imagining basically any Christian faith other than Catholicism or Orthodox Churches. When dying, if sufficient time allows Catholics have a priest with them to hear their last Confession and offer forgiveness for his sins. The Priest then recites the Anointing of the Sick and the Viaticum. According to doctrine he then dies in a state of grace and goes to Heaven.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 1:02 PM on December 23 [9 favorites]

For once, I'm fine with some of his Catholicism leaking in to his politics.

I agree, and he doesn’t even need to be a Catholic to put people’s lives out of the hands of the government. I’m sure plenty of agnostics who aren’t Catholic nor belong to any religion feel the death penalty is just wrong.
posted by waving at 1:16 PM on December 23 [4 favorites]

symbioid, what do you would expect to happen if Mangione were pardoned on the federal charges?
posted by Selena777 at 2:02 PM on December 23

He could potentially be sentenced to death on the federal charges, whereas NY has abolished the death penalty.
posted by BungaDunga at 2:22 PM on December 23 [1 favorite]

A Kids for Cash judge was pardoned because no one was paying attention.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 3:55 PM on December 23 [4 favorites]

That judge wasn't pardoned, his sentence was commuted.
posted by BungaDunga at 4:53 PM on December 23 [9 favorites]

Nothing says "I am deeply committed to the value of human life" like pooh-poohing Biden's almost certainly literally saving these people from state-sanctioned killing by his own government. Trump was slavering to get started on the process of slaughtering these prisoners.
posted by praemunire at 6:16 PM on December 23 [9 favorites]

Honestly my first reaction to the headlines was just trying to guess who the three excluded would be. Not really a surprising list I suppose.

Exactly who I expected when I saw the headline, though I couldn't remember the Tree of Life killer's name.
posted by praemunire at 6:19 PM on December 23

I'll add since I am critical of Biden not commuting all the sentence I'm very happy he's doing so many. It's not like there are any/many "good" people on federal death row so it's just fundamentally a difficult thing. I hope for an arc toward improvement and criminal justice advocates may need to figure out how to better express this dichotomy to people who are likely allies but aren't there yet.
posted by skynxnex at 7:56 PM on December 23 [1 favorite]

That's... not the Catholic faith. You're imagining basically any Christian faith other than Catholicism or Orthodox Churches. When dying, if sufficient time allows Catholics have a priest with them to hear their last Confession and offer forgiveness for his sins. The Priest then recites the Anointing of the Sick and the Viaticum. According to doctrine he then dies in a state of grace and goes to Heaven.

Just a note, since people sometimes get confused by this, doctrine requires true repentance as well. It's not just a priest saying the words that make a sacrament valid.
posted by mark k at 10:35 PM on December 23 [3 favorites]