Biden Commutes Sentences of 37 Death Row Prisoners

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the Department of Labor in Washington, DC on Dec. 16, 2024. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden on Monday announced that he is commuting the sentences of 37 prisoners on the federal government’s death row.

These individuals, all convicted of murder, will now serve life sentences without the possibility of parole.

The decision comes just weeks before the 46th president is set to leave office.

“I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement.

The president defended his decision, stating that the United States must abolish the death sentence at the federal level, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.

“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden 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 am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”

Currently, there are 40 prisoners on federal death row. Three of these prisoners will remain subject to death sentence following today’s announcement. These individuals include Robert Bowers, who was convicted of killing 11 people in the 2018 mass shoot­ing at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh; Dylann Roof, who killed nine parishioners in the 2015 mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was involved in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

President-elect Donald Trump made it clear during his campaign that he would resume the death penalty and expand its use to include child rapists and illegal immigrants who kill U.S. citizens and law enforcement officers.

Biden’s commutations are final and cannot be overturned.

“In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted,” the president said in his statement.

In July 2020, President Trump’s Justice Department resumed federal executions after a 17-year pause. During the final six months of his first term, Trump oversaw the execution of 13 federal death row prisoners.

After Biden took office, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum in July 2021, imposing a moratorium on all federal executions.

“The Department of Justice must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States, but is also treated fairly and humanely,” Garland said. “That obligation has special force in capital cases.”

In his statement, Biden said his decision was consistent with the moratorium his Justice Department has imposed on federal executions.

Among the individuals whose sentences have been commuted to life imprisonment are Jorge Torrez, a former Marine con­vict­ed in 2014 for the killing of a fel­low service member; Thomas Sanders convicted in 2014 for the killing of a 12-year-old girl; and Kaboni Savage, a drug dealer convicted in 2013 for his role in the deaths of 12 peo­ple.

In recent weeks, the president faced increasing pressure from civil rights groups to commute federal death sentences—a campaign promise he made in 2020—before Trump takes office.

The announcement, made just before Christmas, is also significant for Pope Francis, who recently urged Biden to commute the sentences of death row inmates.

“Today, I feel compelled to ask all of you to pray for the inmates on death row in the United States,” the Pope said in his weekly address in early December. “Let us pray that their sentences may be commuted or changed. Let us think of these brothers and sisters of ours and ask the Lord for the grace to save them from death.”

Biden spoke with the Pope on Dec. 19 and scheduled to meet with him during his trip to Italy from Jan. 9 to 12, according to the White House.

Full List of Death Row Commutation Recipients

Shannon Wayne Agofsky

Billie Jerome Allen

Aquilia Marcivicci Barnette

Brandon Leon Basham

Anthony George Battle

Meier Jason Brown

Carlos David Caro

Wesley Paul Coonce, Jr.

Brandon Michael Council

Christopher Emory Cramer

Len Davis

Joseph Ebron

Ricky Allen Fackrell

Edward Leon Fields, Jr.

Chadrick Evan Fulks

Marvin Charles Gabrion, II

Edgar Baltazar Garcia

Thomas Morocco Hager

Charles Michael Hall

Norris G. Holder

Richard Allen Jackson

Jurijus Kadamovas

Daryl Lawrence

Iouri Mikhel

Ronald Mikos

James H. Roane, Jr.

Julius Omar Robinson

David Anthony Runyon

Ricardo Sanchez, Jr.

Thomas Steven Sanders

Kaboni Savage

Mark Isaac Snarr

Rejon Taylor

Richard Tipton

Jorge Avila Torrez

Daniel Troya

Alejandro Enrique Ramirez Umaña