Leading progressive House Democrats have called the death penalty itself “racist” and praised President Biden’s order to dramatically commute sentences for federal death row inmates.
“The President’s decision to commute the death sentences of 37 federal death row inmates is a historic and historic decision that will save lives, address deep racial disparities in our nation’s criminal legal system, and send a powerful message about redemption, decency, and justice. It is a groundbreaking act of mercy and humanity,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Massachusetts, said in a statement Monday.
“The death penalty is a racist, flawed and fundamentally unjust form of punishment and has no place in any society.”
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Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley called the death penalty “racist” in a statement praising President Biden’s clemency decision. (Getty Images)
Pressley argued that the death penalty overwhelmingly targets black and brown communities and has “failed to make America safer.”
The Massachusetts lawmaker is a member of a hard-left group of House Democrats known as the Squad, which has been at the forefront of a progressive push to abolish the death penalty.
Biden’s clemency order affects nearly all inmates on federal death row in the United States.
Of the 40 inmates, only three remain — Dylann Roof, who killed nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina in 2015. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted of carrying out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. and Robert Bowers, who killed 11 worshipers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018.
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Democrats have increased pressure on Biden to take action following his controversial pardon of his son Hunter. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Among those whose sentences were commuted to life imprisonment was Thomas Sanders, who kidnapped and murdered a 12-year-old girl. Jorge Avila-Torres sexually assaulted and stabbed two girls to death, then strangled a 20-year-old female naval officer to death four years later. and Anthony Battle, who killed an Atlanta prison guard with a hammer 30 years ago.
Democrats urged Biden to use his pardon power after he granted a controversial and wide-ranging pardon to his son Hunter Biden weeks before he was scheduled to be sentenced on federal firearms charges. The pressure was increasing.
Biden heeded that pressure earlier this month when he commuted the sentences of about 1,500 Americans, the largest single-day order.
This comes as President-elect Trump has spent months touting his plan to extend the death penalty to drug traffickers, child rapists, and illegal immigrants who kill American citizens.
At the end of President Trump’s first term, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) carried out the first federal execution in 20 years, executing 13 federal death row inmates.
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Sen. Tom Cotton criticized Biden’s decision. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, via Getty Images)
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Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a prominent Trump ally, slammed Biden’s order on Monday.
“Once again, Democrats are siding with corrupt criminals over victims and public policy,” Cotton wrote in X.
“Democrats can’t even defend Biden’s outrageous decision as some sort of principled, outright opposition to the death penalty because he didn’t commute the three most politically toxic cases. Democrats is the politically expedient party of justice.”
Elizabeth Elkind is a political reporter for FOX News Digital, where she leads coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines can be found on the Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow @liz_elkind on Twitter and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com.
