A spokesperson for President-elect Trump lashed out on Monday against President Biden’s decision to commute the death sentences of 37 inmates on federal death row, calling the move a “a slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones.”
In a short statement, Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, noted the different approaches to crime between Biden and Trump.
“These are among the worst killers in the world and this abhorrent decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones,” he said in a statement. “President Trump stands for the rule of law, which will return when he is back in the White House after he was elected with a massive mandate from the American people.”
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The White House announced that Biden was commuting the death sentences to life without the possibility of parole on Monday. Among the victims of the 37 men are law enforcement officers, children and other inmates.
“Biden’s decision is a slap in the face to the victims and to the families of the victims that thought justice was going to be served,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., wrote on X.
Many other Republican lawmakers echoed the same reactions.
Biden believes the federal death penalty should only be imposed for acts of terrorism and hate-motivated killings, the White House said.
“When President Biden came into office, his Administration imposed a moratorium on federal executions, and his actions today will prevent the next Administration from carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice,” the White House said.
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Three federal inmates whose death sentences were not commuted are Robert Bowers, who is responsible for the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, which left 11 people dead; Dylann Roof, a White supremacist who killed nine Black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who worked with his now-dead brother to perpetrate the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds.
Biden said the move would prevent the incoming Trump administration from carrying out the executions.
“In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted,” he said.
The action came after Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 prisoners placed in home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and pardoned 40 others, including his son, Hunter.
As of Dec. 13, Biden has pardoned a total of 65 individuals and commuted sentences for 1,634 inmates during his time as president, according to the Department of Justice.
“The President has issued more sentence commutations at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same point in their first terms,” White House officials said in a previous statement.
Trump has taken a tough stance on the death penalty, previously suggesting that drug dealers should be eligible for the ultimate punishment.
“We’re going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught selling drugs, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts,” Trump said earlier this year on the campaign trial. “Because it’s the only way.”
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