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A growing number of civil rights groups, activist and advocates are amplifying calls for President Joe Biden to commute all 40 current federal death sentences before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. The demands are still coming more than a week after Biden pardoned his son Hunter’s federal conviction for failing to pay federal income tax and illegally possessing a weapon.
A letter signed by more than 130 civil rights groups and activists renewed those calls on Monday emphasizing how sweeping commutations of federal death sentences is “necessary,” particularly ahead of Trump’s second presidency.
Biden’s Department of Justice in 2021 placed a moratorium on federal death sentences, but the presumptive logic is that Trump plans to reverse that once he takes office.
There are 40 people incarcerated and serving federal death sentences across the United States, 15 of whom are Black, according to statistics from the Death Penalty Information Center website. That accounts for 38% of the federal death sentence population, more than triple the percentage of the Black population in the U.S.
The letter noted that more than half of the federal death row prisoners who were executed during Trump’s first term were people of color, including six Black men and one Native American.
“The only irreversible action you can take to prevent President-elect Trump from renewing his execution spree, as he has vowed to do, is commuting the death sentences of those on federal death row now,” the letter to Biden continued. “Your ability to change the course of the death penalty in the United States will be a defining, legacy-building moment in American history. You have the power to lead with redemption and time is of the essence.”
Also on Monday, a group of faith leaders of color sent Biden a separate letter making the same demands. That letter from the Faith Leaders of Color Coalition (flocc) also emphasized race as a primary reason the commutations should be handed down.
“President Biden has a deep-rooted relationship with Black faith communities, and flocc represents more than 500 Black faith leaders, conventions, congregations and convocations in America,” Joia Thornton, founder and national director of flocc, said in a statement. “Commuting the federal death row would be an incredible milestone for those who believe life has value, mercy is encompassing and grace covers a multitude of sin.”
Another letter to Biden calling for the sweeping death sentences’ commutations was sent on behalf of more than 430 human rights groups and signed by Death Penalty Action Board Chair Rev. Sharon Risher, the daughter of Ethel Lance, who was killed by Dylann Roof in a racist mass shooting at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
Aside from the above, there has also been pressure from Democrats like Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush for Biden to commute all federal death sentences.
“Mr. President, you and you alone have the power to save lives,” Pressley said. “You must use it.”
Bush said she’s “not sure what [Biden is] waiting for but the only time better than yesterday is today.”
Of course, whether Biden actually heeds these calls is something entirely different. Yes, the president has the constitutionally given right to commute such federal death sentences, and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week that Biden was “very thoroughly” considering more pardons and commutations beyond his son.
To be sure, Biden has has granted 129 commutations, more than any other president during a first term since Richard Nixon was in the White House.
Biden also pardoned thousands of federal marijuana convictions last year.
But it could be a different story when it comes to commuting federal death sentences.
SEE ALSO:
Black Death Row Prisoners Are Most Vulnerable To Suffering Botched Executions, New Study Finds
‘Continue To Fight’ For Troy Davis: Death Penalty Debate Rages Years After ‘Innocent’ Man Executed
