They didn't run over the reindeer.
In an astonishing act of clemency, President Biden on Monday, just two days before Christmas, inmates will inmate 37 of 40 federal death row inmates, a list that includes at least five child murderers and several mass murderers. The sentence was commuted.
The White House said Mr. Biden, 82, was accused of killing some of the nation's most violent murderers, nine of whom massacred fellow inmates, as part of an effort to “ensure a fair and effective justice system.” It was announced that he had been given a suspended sentence.
“Make no mistake about it, I condemn these murderers, I mourn the victims of their despicable acts, and my heart goes out to all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden said in a statement. ” he said.
“But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice president, and now president, I have always believed that the use of the death penalty must end at the federal level. I am convinced that in good conscience I cannot stand back and allow the new administration to resume the executions that I have halted.”
Biden, who opposes the death penalty, reduced each of the 37 sentences to life in prison without parole. He did not specifically say why he believed the original punishment was unfair.
Among those basking in holiday cheer is Thomas Sanders, who kidnapped 12-year-old Lexis Roberts in Louisiana in 2010, then shot her four times and cut her throat. The incident came just days after the girl witnessed Sanders murder her mother during a road trip near the Grand Canyon. .
Christmas came early for Anthony Battle, who is serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of his wife, a U.S. Marine, at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in 1987, and who killed an Atlanta prison guard with a hammer in 1994.
In 2005, Jorge Avila-Torres sexually assaulted and stabbed two girls, Laura Hobbs, 8, and Crystal Tobias, 9, to death as they rode their bicycles in a neighborhood north of Chicago. did.
Four years later, he strangled 20-year-old Navy officer Amanda Snell inside a barracks in Arlington, Virginia.
Another amnesty recipient, Iuri Mikel, was convicted of kidnapping five Russian and Georgian immigrants for ransom and then killing them, although in some cases the ransoms were not paid before the killings. was.
Meanwhile, Kaboni Savage, a Philadelphia drug dealer, was convicted of committing or ordering the murders of 12 people, including four children, while James Roane Jr. was convicted of committing or ordering the murders of 12 people, including four children. As a drug dealer in Richmond, I was involved in the murders of 11 people.
Three federal death row inmates had their sentences not commuted. Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev killed three people with his brother in 2013. Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018. and Dylann Roof, who murdered nine black churchgoers in Charleston in 2015.
Biden has often flexed his presidential pardon authority over the past month.
On Dec. 1, the outgoing president granted a full pardon to his son Hunter Biden, 54, who was convicted of three federal gun felonies in June and was implicated in September. He has vacated his guilty plea to charges of tax evasion of $1.4 million from overseas transactions. Many times he involved his father.
Biden also on Dec. 12 commuted the sentences of about 1,500 people temporarily released from prison during the coronavirus pandemic. Among them is “Black Widow” Josephine Gray, who murdered two ex-husbands and a third lover. Rita Crundwell, a former comptroller in Dixon, Illinois, stole nearly $54 million from the town of 15,000 over 20 years.
Despite a spate of controversial actions, Biden has so far failed to keep his 2019 campaign promise to release “everyone” in prison for marijuana, infuriating cannabis activists. I'm letting you do it.
Instead, just before the 2022 midterm elections, they announced a mass amnesty for people convicted of simple marijuana possession, none of whom are in prison. This angered the inmates, who called it a “slap in the face.''
