Worthy Christian News > US News > Biden Defends Commuting Death Sentences After Vatican Pressure (Worthy News Focus)

Biden Defends Commuting Death Sentences After Vatican Pressure (Worthy News Focus)

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

VATICAN CITY/WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – U.S. President Joe Biden defended his decision to commute the death sentences of 37 inmates Monday, citing “moral and policy” objections, after facing pressure from the Vatican and others opposing capital punishment.

Earlier this month, Pope Francis, in his weekly address, prayed for the commutation of America’s condemned inmates, Worthy News monitored.

The White House announced that Biden, a Catholic, spoke with Francis Thursday and was scheduled to meet with him at the Vatican next month.

Abolitionist groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had called for blanket commutation of all 40 men on the federal death row.

They argued that the issue wasn’t the depravity of the convicts’ crimes but “a moral” standard the government should uphold.

Capital punishment “is error-prone, racially biased, and a drain on public resources,” stressed the ACLU’s executive director, Anthony Romero. “Although we had hoped President Biden would commute all federal death sentences for those reasons, today’s milestone brings us much closer to our goal of outlawing the death penalty once and for all.”

However, Biden left death sentences in place for three inmates found guilty of terrorism or hate-motivated mass killings, including for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who, with his now-dead brother, bombed the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding more than 250 others.

TREE OF LIFE

Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people in the 2018 attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, and Dylann Roof, who in 2015 killed nine at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, also remained on death row.

Biden’s move prevents President-elect Donald J. Trump from allowing the execution of most men on federal death row.

Those spared include a former Marine who killed two young girls and later a female naval officer.

A Las Vegas man convicted of kidnapping and killing a 12-year-old girl, as well as a Chicago podiatrist who fatally shot a patient to keep her from testifying in a Medicare fraud investigation, were among others not facing execution.

Two men convicted in a kidnapping-for-ransom scheme that resulted in the killings of five Russian and Georgian immigrants were also spared, along with dozens of others.

“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden explained on Monday.

But, citing his early experience as a public defender as well as decades in federal office, “I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” the president said. “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”

REPUBLICANS ANGRY

While his decision was welcome news for the pope and others opposing the death penalty, Republicans condemned the move.

“These are among the worst killers in the world, and this abhorrent decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung argued.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton added on social media platform X: “Democrats can’t even defend Biden’s outrageous decision as some kind of principled, across-the-board opposition to the death penalty since he didn’t commute the three most politically toxic cases.”

Worthy News reported earlier that these commutations come after Biden commuted about 1,500 sentences earlier this month and pardoned 39.

The decisions came after the president confirmed he issued a pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, covering more than a decade for any potential crimes.

Charges against Hunter ranged from “falsifying” records and failing to file tax returns dating to a period when he was hooked on crack, alcohol, and easy cash to “lying” on a mandatory gun-purchase form.