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President-elect Trump’s spokesperson on Monday slammed President Biden’s decision to commute the death sentences of 37 federal death row inmates, calling the move “a slap in the face to the victims, their families and loved ones.” said. ”
In a short statement, Stephen Chan, President Trump’s communications director, pointed to the differences in Biden’s and Trump’s approaches to crime.
“They are among the world’s worst murderers, and this abhorrent decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families and loved ones,” he said in a statement. “President Trump supports the rule of law, which he was elected with a strong mandate from the American people, and will return to when he returns to the White House.”
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Social media was abuzz after President Biden announced Monday that he would commute the sentences of nearly all federal death row inmates. (AP)
The White House announced Monday that Biden would commute his death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The 37 victims include law enforcement officers, children and other prisoners.
“Biden’s decision is a slap in the face to the victims and their families who believed justice would be served,” Sen. Eric Schmidt (R-Missouri) wrote about X.
Many other Republicans had similar reactions.
According to the White House, Biden believes the federal death penalty should only be imposed for acts of terrorism and murders motivated by hatred.
“When President Biden took office, his administration imposed a moratorium on federal sentences, and President Biden’s actions today prevent the incoming administration from carrying out executions that would not be handed down under current policies and practices,” the White House said in a statement. I will do it,” he said.
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The three federal inmates whose death sentences were not commuted include Robert Bowers, the man responsible for the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting that killed 11 people; Dylann Roof, a white supremacist who murdered nine black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev worked with his late brother to carry out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and injured hundreds.
Biden said the measure would prevent the incoming Trump administration from carrying out the death penalty.
“I cannot in good conscience quietly allow the new administration to resume executions that I have halted,” he said.
The move comes after Biden commuted the sentences of about 1,500 inmates on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and pardoned 40 others, including his son Hunter. It was done.
According to the Department of Justice, as of December 13, Mr. Biden had pardoned a total of 65 people and commuted the sentences of 1,634 prisoners during his term as president.
Hunter Biden is all smiles as he leaves Arby’s in Santa Barbara on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. This is the first time President Joe Biden’s son has been photographed since being pardoned by his father. (Fox News Digital Image Direct)
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“The President has handed down more commutations at this point in his term than any president at the same point in his recent predecessor’s first term,” White House officials said in an earlier statement.
President Trump has taken a hard line on the death penalty, previously suggesting drug traffickers should receive the ultimate punishment.
“I intend to seek the death penalty for everyone who sells drugs and anyone caught selling drugs for their heinous acts,” President Trump said at his election hearing earlier this year. “Because it’s the only way.”
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