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President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 men on federal death row on Monday (December 23), ABC News reports.
Biden said the reduced sentences were "consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions," making exceptions for three inmates convicted of terrorism or hate-motivated mass killings. The three people on the federal execution list who didn't have their death sentences commuted were Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Tree of Life Synagogue mass shooter Robert Bowers and Dylann Roof, who killed nine Black churchgoers during a racially motivated shooting in South Carolina.
The White House issued a fact sheet obtained by ABC News, which claimed that the commuted sentences were "reclassified from execution to life without the possibility of parole."
"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 said in a statement about the commutations obtained by ABC News.
"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," he added.
The Biden administration said the sentences were commuted to prohibit President-elect Donald Trump from "carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice" in the fact sheet obtained by ABC News.
Biden previously announced his intention to commute the sentences of roughly 1,500 people released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as pardon 39 Americans convicted on nonviolent crimes during what was the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history on December 12.