Biden Grants Commutations to 37 Death Row Inmates: Complete List Inside
The group comprises serial killers as well as individuals convicted of kidnapping and murdering women and children.
President Joe Biden has changed the sentences of 37 inmates on death row to life imprisonment.
“However, informed by my conscience and my experiences as a public defender, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, I am increasingly convinced that we must eliminate the death penalty at the federal level.”
Biden’s action has faced backlash from Republican legislators.
“When it comes to the choice between law-abiding citizens and criminals, Joe Biden and the Democrats consistently side with criminals,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) remarked on social media.
Biden is expected to step down from office on January 20, 2025.
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His successor, President-elect Donald Trump, has stated he would increase the frequency of executions for federal prisoners. In his announcement speech for the 2024 presidential election, he mentioned that individuals caught “selling drugs” would “face the death penalty for their heinous crimes,” specifically referencing fentanyl traffickers.
Those Granted Clemency
The 37 death row inmates whose death sentences were modified by Biden include Shannon Wayne Agofsky, Billie Jerome Allen, Aquilia Marcivicci Barnette, Brandon Leon Basham, Anthony George Battle, Meier Jason Brown, Carlos David Caro, Wesley Paul Coonce Jr., Brandon Michael Council, Christopher Emory Cramer, Len Davis, Joseph Ebron, Rickey Allen Fackrell, Edward Leon Fields Jr., Chadrick Evan Fulks, Marvin Charles Gabrion II, Edgar Baltazar Garcia, Thomas Morocco Hager, Charles Michael Hall, Norris G. Holder, Richard Allen Jackson, Jurijus Kadamovas, Daryl Lawrence, Iouri Mikhel, Ronald Mikos, James H. Roane Jr., Julius Omar Robinson, David Anthony Runyon, Ricardo Sanchez Jr., Thomas Steven Sanders, Kaboni Savage, Mark Isaac Snarr, Rejon Taylor, Richard Tipton, Jorge Avila Torrez, Daniel Troya, and Alejandro Enrique Ramies Umana.
Significant Crimes
All individuals who had their sentences commuted were convicted of murder.
Kaboni Savage, a former gang leader, was found guilty of orchestrating or directly committing the murders of 12 individuals, including four children, while working as a drug dealer in Philadelphia in the early 2000s. He was the first person in modern Philadelphia to be sentenced to death.
Iouri Mikhel and Jurijus Kadamovas both received death sentences for their participation in a series of kidnappings and murders targeting Georgian and Russian immigrants in 2001.
Len Davis, a former officer with the New Orleans Police Department, was condemned to death in 1996 for ordering the assassination of a woman who filed a complaint against him for police misconduct.
Brandon Michael Council was convicted of murdering two women during a bank heist, while Billie Jerome Allen participated in a bank robbery that resulted in the death of a security guard.
Remaining Federal Inmates Facing Execution
Only three federal inmates still face execution following the recent pardons.
Those inmates are Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 2013 Boston Marathon bomber; Dylann Roof, who killed nine individuals at a church in South Carolina in 2015; and Robert Bowers, who shot and killed 11 congregants at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.
Reporting contributed by The Associated Press and Reuters.
