Outgoing President Joe Biden announced Monday that he has commuted the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment without parole.
The move spares the lives of convicted individuals just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump, an advocate for expanding capital punishment, assumes office.
The commutations apply to individuals convicted of various federal crimes, including the killings of law enforcement officers, military personnel, and civilians during bank robberies, drug deals, or incidents in federal facilities.
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However, three high-profile inmates—Dylann Roof, the 2015 Charleston church shooter; Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who carried out the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre—remain on death row due to their acts of terrorism and hate-driven mass killings.
“I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement. “Guided by my conscience and my experience, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”
Biden emphasized that the commutations align with the moratorium his administration implemented in 2021, which paused federal executions to review protocols.
However, critics have noted that the president stopped short of fulfilling his 2020 campaign promise to work toward abolishing the federal death penalty entirely.
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Pointing to Trump, Biden added, “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
President-elect Trump has called for an expansion of capital punishment, advocating for the death penalty for drug dealers, human smugglers, and others.
During his first term, Trump oversaw 13 federal executions, the most by any president in modern history. Some of these executions occurred in the final weeks of his presidency, making him the first lame-duck president to authorize federal executions since 1889.
Biden’s announcement follows mounting pressure from advocacy groups and religious leaders, including Pope Francis, who recently called for prayers for U.S. death row inmates. Martin Luther King III praised the decision, stating that Biden “has done what no president before him was willing to do: take meaningful and lasting action to acknowledge the death penalty’s racist roots and remedy its persistent unfairness.”
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The Cop Killer
Donnie Oliverio, a retired Ohio police officer whose partner, Bryan Hurst, 33, was killed by Daryl Lawrence, whose death sentence was converted, said the execution of “the person who killed my police partner and best friend would have brought me no peace.”
“The president has done what is right here,” Oliverio said in a statement also issued by the White House, “and what is consistent with the faith he and I share.”
Lawrence was sentenced to death for fatally shooting Officer Hurst during a botched bank robbery at a Fifth Third Bank on the east side of Columbus.
On January 6, 2005, Officer Hurst, a member of the Columbus Division of Police, was working special duty, providing security at the Fifth Third Bank located at 6265 E. Broad St. Lawrence, armed with a handgun, entered the bank that day with the intent to rob it.
A confrontation ensued, culminating in a deadly exchange of gunfire between Lawrence and Officer Hurst. Despite being mortally wounded, Officer Hurst was able to return fire, striking Lawrence. The officer ultimately succumbed to his injuries, leaving behind a grieving family and a community in shock.
Lawrence was apprehended shortly after the incident and subsequently charged with aggravated murder. The jury, after finding Lawrence guilty, sentenced him to death.
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