Reactions to Biden's Death Row Commutations

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Media sources and victims' families are reacting to President Joe Biden's death row commutations.

Key Details: Since Biden granted clemency to federal prisoners on December 23, victims' families and others affected by death row convictions have shared emotions ranging from anger to relief. The ACLU and other opponents to the death penalty praised Biden for the commutations, saying he was empathetic, compassionate, and open to new information and circumstances. Meanwhile, those advocating for expanding capitol punishment spoke out against the commutations, saying that there is nothing to suggest that the handling of these 37 cases was unfair.

For Context: Recently, advocacy groups have been urging Biden to "make it more difficult" for President-elect Donald Trump to expand the use of capital punishment for federal crimes.

How the Media Covered it: Some sources on the left focused on Trump's return to the White House and his indication that he would restart federal executions. Some sources on the right reported that the federal commutations seemed to supersede the will of the American people as expressed through Congress and not based on the facts of individual cases.

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Biden, or whoever is running the White House, should be ashamed.

President Joe Biden, or whoever is running the White House, grotesquely abused the pardon power, yet again.

Biden commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 of the prisoners on federal death row in response to the lobbying of opponents of the death penalty, keeping intact his nearly unbroken record of bending to left-wing pressure groups while in office.

Victims’ families and others affected by crimes that resulted in federal death row convictions shared a range of emotions on Monday, from relief to anger, after President Joe Biden commuted dozens of the sentences.

Biden converted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The inmates include people convicted in the slayings of police and military officers, as well as federal prisoners and guards. Others were involved in deadly robberies and drug deals.

Over his long and storied career, Joe Biden has consistently led with compassion, empathy, and a willingness to consider new information and changed circumstances in furtherance of America’s best interests. All of these defining qualities were manifest when he took the historic action of commuting the death sentences of nearly everyone on federal death row to life in prison.