President Biden is reportedly considering commuting the death sentences of the majority, if not all, of the 40 men presently on federal death row for murder.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Attorney General Merrick Garland has advised President Biden to convert the death sentences of nearly all the 40 cases to life imprisonment. This recommendation aligns with Biden’s opposition to capital punishment.
President Biden’s ‘merit’ mercies are even worse than Hunter’s pardon.
The Journal did not disclose the specific prisoners whom Garland advised Biden against sparing. However, it is possible that they include individuals like Robert Bowers, who committed a heinous act by fatally shooting 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018. Another potential candidate could be Dylann Roof, who carried out a racially motivated attack in 2015, killing nine black parishioners at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber who, along with his late brother, caused the deaths of three individuals and injured hundreds in 2013, is currently awaiting execution on federal death row.
Advisories from the attorney general often provide a shield for presidents to carry out contentious actions, and the White House informed the Journal that a conclusive determination has not yet been reached.
The impact of the clemency on pending cases, including the trial of Payton Gendron, who committed a mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, NY in 2022, remains uncertain. Gendron is facing federal prosecutors’ request for a death sentence, with the alleged motive being anti-black racism.
Iouri Mikhel, a criminal who was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering five Russian and Georgian immigrants for ransom, and Jorge Avila-Torrez, another offender who committed the heinous acts of killing two girls in 2005 and later a naval officer four years after, are among the notorious individuals in this category.
In recent weeks, President Biden has made several controversial decisions regarding pardons and commutations. One of the most notable instances was the pardon granted to his own son, Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of three federal gun felonies and pleaded guilty to tax fraud amounting to $1.4 million from his foreign business ventures. These pardons have sparked widespread debate and criticism.
On December 12, Biden granted clemency to almost 1,500 individuals who had been granted temporary release from prison due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The mass reprieve faced criticism when it was discovered that Josephine Gray, commonly known as the “Black Widow,” who had murdered two of her ex-husbands and another lover, and Rita Crundwell, the former comptroller of Dixon, Ill., who was found guilty of embezzling nearly $54 million from the town of 15,000 people over a span of two decades, were among those granted clemency.
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