Biden gives life in prison to 37 of 40 federal death row inmates so Trump can't have them executed - The Boston Globe

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

51% : "But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice president, and now president, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.
51% : "Indeed, Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has spoken frequently of expanding executions.
44% : During his first term as president, Trump also advocated for the death penalty for drug dealers.
41% : "Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole.
40% : Speculation that Biden could commute federal death sentences intensified last week after the White House announced he plans to visit Italy on the final foreign trip of his presidency next month.
38% : These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.
37% : Martin Luther King III, who publicly urged Biden to change the death sentences, said in a statement issued by the White House that the president "has done what no president before him was willing to do: take meaningful and lasting action not just to acknowledge the death penalty's racist roots but also to remedy its persistent unfairness."Donnie Oliverio, a retired Ohio police officer whose partner was killed by one of the men whose death sentence was converted, said the execution of "the person who killed my police partner and best friend would have brought me no peace."
36% : "He took a political jab at Trump, saying, "In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.
29% : In a speech announcing his 2024 campaign, Trump called for those "caught selling drugs to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts."
25% : But Biden actually had promised to go further on the issue in the past, pledging to end federal executions without the caveats for terrorism and hate-motivated, mass killings.
18% : The final three occurred after Election Day in November 2020 but before Trump left office the following January, the first time federal prisoners were put to death by a lame-duck president since Grover Cleveland in 1889.
10% : Biden faced recent pressure from advocacy groups urging him to act to make it more difficult for Trump to increase the use of capital punishment for federal inmates.

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