Biden Commutes the Death Sentences of 37 Murderers

Outgoing President Joe Biden is commuting the death sentences of 37 of America’s worst murderers, a move praised by death penalty opponents. Each will now serve life in prison without the possibility of parole (LWOP). Elizabeth Pritchett of Fox News reports that several of the murderers were gang members who killed rivals involved in drug trafficking. For example:

Drug lord Kaboni Savage murdered or directed someone else to murder 12 people during a 16-year period–including an arson that killed six members of a federal informant’s family.

Other convicted murderers who will now escape execution include:

Marcivicci Barnette, who killed a man in a carjacking and his ex-girlfriend; co-defendants Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks, who kidnapped and killed a woman after escaping prison; Anthony Battle, who killed a prison guard; Jason Brown, who stabbed a postal worker to death; Thomas Hager, who committed a drug-related killing; David Runyon, who participated in the murder-for-hire plot of a Naval officer; Thomas Sanders, who kidnapped and killed a 12-year-old girl; Rejon Taylor, who carjacked, kidnapped and killed a restaurant owner; and Alejandro Umana, who killed two brothers inside a restaurant.

While the president claims that he is opposed to the death penalty, he did not commute the death sentences of Robert Bowers, who is responsible for the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, leaving 11 people dead; Dylann Roof, the racist in 2015, who gunned down nine Black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Bomber, who along with his brother killed three and maimed hundreds.  The decision not to spare these killers was obviously political.

What we are learning during President Biden’s last few weeks in office is how little he and the people managing him care about democracy or the rule of law.  This will be his legacy.