Child murderers and rapists could be spared death penalty under plans drawn up for one of Biden’s final acts

President Joe Biden is considering commuting the sentences of many – or possibly all – of the 40 men on death row as one of his final acts in the White Office, according to a report. 

The list of convicts who stand to avoid execution under the plans include some of the country’s most notorious killers, including men found guilty of slaughtering children and raping and murdering women.

Biden, 82, recently commuted the prison sentence of Shanlin Jin, a Chinese citizen who pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography – a move that invited strong criticism from President-elect Donald Trump.   

Since then, multiple religious and civil-rights groups have been demanding that the commander-in-chief reduce the sentence as many as 40 prisoners facing execution. 

The President’s latest plans, which will shock an America in which 53 per cent of people support the death penalty, was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland, who oversees federal prisons, is said to have recommended that the president commute all but a handful of terrorism and hate-crimes cases. 

Criminals who could benefit from the plans include: Dylann Roof, who murdered nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston in 2015; Iouri Mikhel, who was convicted for the killings and kidnappings-for-ransom of five Russian and Georgian immigrants in 2007; Thomas Sanders, who was sentenced to death for the kidnapping and death of a 12-year-old girl; and Daniel Troya, who killed two children in drug-related murders in 2009. 

Inmates who are less likely to be given any leniency are Dzhokhar Tsarnaev – convicted for killing three and wounding over 250 by causing the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people in the 2018 attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. 

If their death sentences were to be commuted, the prisoners would serve life without parole. 

A White House spokesman has confirmed that no final decision had been made as of now. The Justice Department has not yet commented on the situation.

People close to Biden, whose term comes to an end in January 2025, believe that a decision could come by Christmas Day. 

Apart from the 40 death row inmates held by the Justice Department, four other inmates also sit on the military’s death row at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. 

It remains unclear whether any potential commutation would cover the unlisted inmates or how Biden’s potential decision might affect pending cases that could lead to a death sentence – including that of Luigi Mangione, who faces federal charges in the alleged killing of healthcare executive Brian Thompson. 

During his three decades in the Senate, Biden supported the death penalty – a stance that for a long time put him at odds with the doctrine of his Catholic faith.  

However, all of this came to a change during his presidential campaign in 2020. He promised to push Congress to abolish the federal death penalty. 

While this law never came into existence, Garland managed to stall the practice when he issued a moratorium to study the way people are put to death, according to TIME. 

As the possibility of pardons looms, Republicans have begun expressing their shock and disgust with the decision. 

‘It would mean that progressive politics is more important to the President than the lives taken by these murderers. 

‘It would mean that society’s most forceful condemnation of white supremacy and antisemitism must give way to legal mumbo jumbo,’ Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in reference to the motives of Bowers and Roof in a floor speech on December 18. 

And it seems that the Republican sentiment is felt by many Americans across the country. 

According to October 2024 polling produced by Gallup, about of 53 percent of Americans remain in favor of the death penalty. 

Data also showed that the support for the death penalty has remained stable among Republicans over the past 25 years but has shifted among Democrats and Independents. 

But despite this, Biden has already commuted the sentences of 1,500 people and pardoning 39 others in the biggest ever single-day act of clemency in the US.

The names of the people involved have not been given but the pardons are for those convicted of non-violent crimes.

The commutations were announced for those who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biden said these people would have received shorter sentences if charged under today’s laws, policies, and practices.

‘As President, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses,’ Biden said.

The pardons come over a week after the president was criticized for pardoning his own son Hunter from his federal crimes.

Officials said last week that the White House was listening to demands for Biden to extend the same grace to thousands of people wronged by the U.S. judicial system.

Sources had told Reuters last week that the pardons that were being discussed were said to include those convicted of nonviolent drug offenses and people identified by civil rights groups as unjustly incarcerated.

Biden said he would be taking more steps in the weeks ahead and would continue to review clemency petitions. 

The second largest single-day act of clemency was by Barack Obama, with 330, shortly before leaving office in 2017.