Pressley praises Biden for saving death row inmates

Local News

Rep. Ayanna Pressley praised President Joe Biden's recent decision to commute the sentences of nearly everyone on federal death row, calling it a “historic and groundbreaking actin an announcement on Monday.

Pressley, who represents much of Boston and a few surrounding suburbs, has long been a vocal opponent of the death penalty. She had before Biden urged to make use of his clemency authority to commute the sentences of all 40 people on federal death row before he leaves office next month.

Biden stopped in need of Pressley's request and commuted the sentences of a complete of 37 people. Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is one in all the inmates facing execution, together with Dylann Roof and Robert Bowers. Roof was convicted of killing nine black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in a racist rampage in 2015. Bowers was convicted of the 2018 killing of 11 Jewish worshipers on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.

Biden commuted the sentences of the 37 other inmates to life in prison without the potential for parole. The sentences for Tsarnaev, Roof and Bowers weren’t commuted because their cases involved “terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,” Biden said in an announcement. At the state level, there are still many more people on death row.

“[Biden’s decision] will save lives, address the deep racial disparities in our criminal justice system and send a powerful message about redemption, decency and humanity,” Pressley said in an announcement.

Biden campaigned on abolishing the federal death penalty in 2020 and directed the Justice Department to issue a moratorium on federal executions in 2021. Earlier this month, he commuted the sentences of about 1,500 individuals who were released from prison and placed under house arrest through the coronavirus pandemic and pardoned 39 people convicted of non-violent crimes.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to resume federal executions upon his return to office. He resumed it in his first term after a break of just about 20 years. A complete of 13 executions were carried out under his watch, all of which took place in the ultimate six months of his presidency. Trump said During his 2024 campaign, he called for drug dealers and human traffickers to be given the death penalty.

In an interview with GBH NewsPressley said Biden should go further and release detained individuals who don’t pose a threat to public safety.

“State-sanctioned murder is not justice. It’s not a deterrent to crime,” Pressley said on CNN this week.