Acting US President Joe Biden commuted the death penalty for 37 convicts.
US President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the death sentences of 37 condemned prisoners. He did so less than a month before Donald Trump’s return to the White House. The AFP agency recalls that the number of executions by lethal injection increased during the first term of office of the Republican president, reports TASR.
“These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has put in place on federal executions for cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,” Biden said. In a statement, he announced that the inmates’ death sentences are being commuted to life without the possibility of parole.
He does not want the death penalty to be expanded
“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, I grieve for the victims of their heinous acts,” the president said. to stand by and allow the new administration to resume the executions I stopped,” Biden added.
NBC reminds that the newly elected President Trump announced during his campaign that if he wins the election, he will restore federal executions and expand the number of people who can be punished by the death penalty.
In this category, Trump would like to include perpetrators of violence against children, migrants who have killed US citizens, and persons convicted of human and drug trafficking. During Trump’s first term, federal authorities executed 13 people. It was the largest number of executions since the administration of President Grover Cleveland in the 1890s.
