President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday reiterated his pledge to “vigorously pursue” the death penalty, taking aim at President Joe Biden’s decision to commute the sentences of nearly all federal death row inmates.
President Trump also reinforced some people’s backlash against Biden’s unprecedented move, which drew both criticism and praise.
“This doesn’t make sense,” President Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social. “My relatives and friends are even more shocked. They can’t believe this is happening!”
He continued, “As soon as I take office, I will direct the Department of Justice to vigorously advance the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters.” Ta. “We will be a nation of law and order again!”
“Guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender,” Biden announced Monday that he would commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 federal death row inmates to life in prison without parole.
The move had been speculated for weeks after a broad coalition of criminal justice advocates, former prosecutors and business leaders sent a letter to the White House prior to Trump’s inauguration asking for Trump’s sentence to be commuted. Pope Francis also appealed this month for Biden, a Catholic, to have his sentence commuted. Biden is scheduled to meet with the pope next month in the final days of his presidency.
The president said in a statement Monday that the commutation is consistent with a moratorium on executions that his administration imposed after taking office, saying, “I cannot in good conscience force a new administration to resume executions that I halted.” said.
But Biden also emphasized that he would refuse to commute the sentences of three federal death row inmates involved in mass murders. One is Robert Bowers, a death row inmate who killed 11 people in the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. Dylann Roof, who shot nine people at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who carried out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Despite saving the lives of 37 other inmates, Biden said, “Make no mistake, I condemn these murderers, I mourn the victims of their despicable acts, and I am committed to the unimaginable recovery process.” My heart goes out to all the families who have suffered irreversible losses.”
Trump campaigned for expanding the federal death penalty after his first term, during which time the Justice Department executed 13 federal inmates. This was the highest number since President Grover Cleveland in the late 1800s.
President Trump has since said he wants to expand the death penalty to include child rapists, immigrants who kill American citizens or law enforcement officers, and people convicted of drug and human trafficking. It’s unclear how the next president would do so, and legal experts say it would require support from Congress and face significant constitutional challenges.
Still, anti-death penalty advocates said they take Trump’s comments seriously.
Meanwhile, Biden is battling criticism not only from political opponents but also from law enforcement and some victims’ families over commuting the sentences of death row inmates.
“I thought the timing was despicable,” Tim Timmerman, whose 19-year-old daughter Rachel was killed in 1997, told NBC affiliate WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Her daughter’s convicted murderer, Marvin Gabrion, is also accused of killing Rachel Timmerman’s infant daughter, whose body was never found, and is the first in three other deaths. He is a suspect. Gabrion is currently 71 years old.
“Where is the justice in just giving him a comfortable prison bed to die in?” Timmerman added, “I was not the one who sentenced Gavrion to death.” It’s the jury, and I always think it’s important to point out that – the jury is the people who sentenced Gavrion to death. ”
The daughter of Donna Major, one of two South Carolina bank employees killed by federal death row inmate Brandon Council in 2017, calls Council’s commutation of sentence unfair and an “abuse of power.” did.
“My mother’s murder is being used as fodder for a political game by a president who is not even fit for office,” Heather Turner posted on Facebook on Tuesday. “I stand by my position that Joe Biden has blood on his hands.”
Biden has been praised by anti-death penalty groups, who have long argued that the death penalty process is tainted, in part because of racial disparities in those sentenced to death and those who are executed. Some people think that the results were not sufficient. Commutes the sentences of all federal death row inmates and four U.S. military death row inmates.
The Rev. Sharon Risher, president of Death Penalty Action, whose mother Ethel Lance and cousins Tywanza Sanders and Susie Jackson were among those killed in the 2015 Charleston shooting, said in a statement: “Politics is getting in the way,” he said. Of mercy. ”
“Mr. President, you can’t rank victims. I ask you to finish this job, not just with the three people left on federal death row, but with military death row inmates as well,” Risher said. Ta. “There’s still time.”
