In a groundbreaking move, outgoing President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of all federal death row inmates, except for those sentenced for hate-related and terrorism crimes, the White House revealed on December 23.
“Those individuals will have their sentences reclassified from execution to life without the possibility of parole,” according to the White House’s statement.
Biden, “believes that America must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder — which is why today’s actions apply to all but those cases,” it added.
The federal death row inmates omitted from the commutation are Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the assailants of the Boston Marathon bombing; Robert Bowers, who was convicted of the antisemitic mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue; and Dylann Roof, who killed nine Black churchgoers in a racially motivated shooting at Mother Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Roof, a white supremacist, carried out the Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting in 2015, after being welcomed by members into a Bible study. Roof eventually opened fire on the group of Christians, killing nine. He was convicted of federal hate crimes and murder charges.
According to ABC News, Biden’s “decision comes after some notable figures and many activists called for [him] to take action.”