[[link removed]]

BIDEN’S HANDS ‘WILL BE BLOODY’ IF HE LETS TRUMP INHERIT DEATH
ROW CASES, CRITICS WARN  
[[link removed]]


 

Eloise Goldsmith
December 4, 2024
Common Dreams
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ "President Biden came into office committing to abolishing the
federal death penalty because of its fundamental flaws. Commuting the
federal row is the way he can honor that commitment," said one
advocate. _

President Joe Biden, [Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters]

 

For weeks, President Joe Biden has faced calls to use his clemency
powers to save the lives of federal inmates on death row ahead of a
transfer of power to President-elect Donald Trump
[[link removed]], who has said he
will expand
[[link removed]] the
use of the death penalty.

Biden's inaction on the issue has drawn increased scrutiny
[[link removed]] following
his pardon of his own son, Hunter Biden, clearing
[[link removed]] the
younger Biden of wrongdoing in any federal crimes he committed or may
have committed in the last 11 years.

Presidents have broad authority under Article II, Section 2 of the
Constitution to grant pardons and reprieves for federal crimes. Biden
recently pardoned two Thanksgiving turkeys as part of an annual
tradition to highlight these constitutional powers, but he has not
issued commutations for the 40 incarcerated men
[[link removed]] on
federal death row. (He did, however, order
[[link removed]] a
moratorium on carrying out federal death sentences in 2021).

"If Biden does not act, there is little doubt that Trump will
aggressively schedule executions in his next term. Their blood will
primarily be on Trump's hands, but, if Biden does not act to prevent
it, his hands will be bloody too," wrote
[[link removed]] Matt
Bruenig, president of the People's Policy Project think tank, reacting
to the news of Hunter Biden's pardon.

The pardoning of Hunter Biden, who was awaiting sentencing
[[link removed]] in two federal
cases, also prompted scrutiny around pardon actions Biden could take
that are not just focused on death row.

"This," wrote
[[link removed]] Rep. Rashida
Tlaib [[link removed]] (D-Mich.) in
response to a post on X that contrasted Hunter Biden's pardon with the
fact that tens of thousands of people are in federal custody for drug
offenses.

In 2020, Biden pledged to work to abolish the federal death
penalty but
[[link removed]],
according to the Death Penalty Information Center, "there has been
little evidence of anything done in furtherance of this promise."

Pressure to issue clemency was building prior to the announcement of
Hunter Biden's pardon.

On November 20, over 60 members of Congress sent a letter to
Biden, encouraging
[[link removed]] him
to use his "clemency powers to help broad classes of people and cases,
including the elderly and chronically ill, those on death row, people
with unjustified sentencing disparities, and women who were punished
for defending themselves against their abusers."

During a press conference in November that featured House Democrats
and anti-death penalty advocates, Rep. Ayanna Pressley
[[link removed]] (D-Mass.) said
that "those on death row who are at risk of barbaric and inhumane
murder at the hands of the Trump administration can have their death
sentence commuted and be resentenced to a prison term," according
[[link removed]] to _Oklahoma
Voice_.

"We're here today to ask him to take another step in that direction
and to demonstrate, once again, a very positive consequence of his
having been elected our 46th president, and to carry out his clemency
powers in a very positive way," Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said.

Meanwhile, the ACLU has also urged Biden to use the lame duck session
to commute federal death sentences—pointing
[[link removed]] out
that Trump has vowed to expand the death penalty, including to
non-homicide crimes such as drug-related offenses.

"The death penalty is a morally-bankrupt and inescapably racist
institution. President Biden came into office committing to abolishing
the federal death penalty because of its fundamental flaws. Commuting
the federal row is the way he can honor that commitment, and prevent
irreversible miscarriages of justice," said Yasmin Cader, ACLU deputy
legal director and the director of the Trone Center for Justice and
Equality.

While Biden so far has granted far fewer pardon and commutation
petitions compared to former President Barack Obama, according
[[link removed]] to the
Department of Justice's Office of the Pardon Attorney, he did in 2022
grant full and unconditional pardons to all U.S. citizens convicted of
simple federal marijuana possession—a move
[[link removed]] that
was cheered by advocates.

"President Joe Biden can—and must—act now to finish the death
penalty reform work his administration began in 2020," the ACLU said
last month. "He must commute the sentences of all people on federal
death row to stymie Trump’s plans and to redress the racial
injustice inherent to capital punishment."

_Eloise Goldsmith is a staff writer for Common Dreams._

* death row
[[link removed]]
* President Biden
[[link removed]]
* Commutation
[[link removed]]
* Death Penalty
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]