Joe Biden could preemptively stop a brutal policy from Trump.

There 40 men on federal death row Prisoners sentenced to death by the federal government until 1993. Crimes committed by federal death row inmates add drug-related murders, murders committed in a national park, murders committed during terrorist attacks, and the shooting death of a bank officer during a robbery. Eighteen are white; 15 Black; six Latinos; one is Asian.

It’s all been said there happened There have been 50 federal executions in the past century; 13 of these were carried out by the Trump administration between July 2020 and January 2021.

In contrast, Biden has a mixed record about the death penalty. Unlike his predecessor, he did not carry out any federal executions, but like the Atlantic’s Elizabeth Bruenig explains, “Nor did (Attorney General Merrick) direct Garland to stop pursuing new death sentences or to stop defending ongoing capital cases.”

Now that the 2024 elections are over and Trump will return to the White House, President Biden’s Do as I urged him to do last July and use his pardon power to vacate federal death row.. He must make sure that none of the men currently there will ever be killed.

Sometimes it’s hard to step up and do the right thing. But in this case, Biden could follow in the footsteps of several governors who waited until the end of their terms to give lump sum compensation to people on death row in their states.

This is at least What America’s first abolitionist could do. Like those governors, Biden has ample justification to use his clemency authority to advance the cause of justice and save lives.

As Former Senator Russ Feingold wrote last year:

A blanket commutation would implement Mr. Biden’s anti-death penalty stance and move the United States further toward abolishing the death penalty. This would also prevent another federal execution spree like those carried out under the Trump administration. Commuting federal death sentences could be a defining feature of Mr. Biden’s legacy of restoring, in his words, “the soul of the nation.”

HE can be inspired This includes information from multiple sources, including former Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, who commuted the sentences of all 17 men on death row in her state as she leaves office in December 2022. Brown at the time in question: “I have long believed that justice cannot be achieved by taking a life, and that the state should not be in the business of executing people, even if a terrible crime lands them in prison. … This is a value that many Oregonians share.”

“Unlike previous commutations I have granted to individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary growth and rehabilitation,” he explained, “this commutation is not based on any rehabilitative efforts by individuals on death row. Instead, it reflects a recognition that the death penalty is immoral. It is an irreversible punishment that cannot be corrected; tax “It wastes taxpayer dollars; it does not make communities safer; it is not and has never been managed fairly and equitably.”

To take another example, Biden could learn from the actions of Republican Illinois Gov. George Ryan in 2003, when he vacated the state’s death row by issuing universal sentences to all 167 inmates. It was Ryan then. accepted own journey, a journey Like Biden’s, from death penalty supporter to critic.

Unlike Brown, Ryan did not condemn the state’s killing of him. Instead, he focused on what he saw as crippling flaws in his administration.

He noted: “Last year there were nearly 1,000 murders in Illinois, and of those 1,000, only 2 percent were sentenced to death. Where is justice and equality in this? “The death penalty in Illinois is not administered fairly and equitably due to the lack of standards for the 102 Illinois State Attorneys General who must decide whether to seek the death penalty.”

“Should geography,” Ryan asked, “be a factor in determining who gets the death penalty? I don’t think so, but in Illinois it does make a difference. In rural Illinois, you’re 5 times more likely to be sentenced to death for first-degree murder than in Cook County.” “Where is the justice and proportionality in this?”

And Illinois’ governor has paid particular attention to inequities in the death penalty system, including its history of racial discrimination and Illinois’ release of 17 people wrongfully sentenced to death at the time.

Other governors who are doing what Brown and Ryan did and what Biden should do include: Lee Cruce, Governor of Oklahoma Between 1911–1915, Winthrop Rockefeller, Governor of Arkansas Between 1966–1970 and Tony Anaya, Governor of New Mexico Between 1982–1986. Each took advantage of the period just before leaving office to do what would have been too much of a political risk to do if they had to seek re-election.

Now it’s President Biden’s turn.

Many of the issues Brown and Ryan highlight in mitigating death row also apply to federal capital punishment. Moreover, the federal death penalty faces the same issues of racial injustice that plague the states where it is legal.

American Civil Liberties Union reports “The majority of federal death sentences and the majority of modern federal executions are defendants of color. Moreover, modern Attorneys General seek the death penalty at much higher rates if the victim is white, and white federal defendants are much more likely to have capital charges reduced to life imprisonment through plea bargaining.

These issues, along with the injustice of the government sending everyone to their deaths, provide ample reason for Biden to impose mass sentence commutations. But so far, Biden doesn’t seem willing to use his pardon power in this or any other area.

Writing in September of this year, law professors Rachel Barkow and Mark Osler Notes “Biden’s privileged 25 people were pardoned and the sentences of 131 people were commuted. … That’s only 1.4 percent of the petitions it receives. … No modern U.S. president, dating back to Richard Nixon, has had such a low rate.”

“Amnesty,” they argue, is “more important than ever in an age of grossly excessive sentencing and mass incarceration.” Timidity is not a path to inheritance.”

Like governors who have overcome such inhibitions and granted leniency in deadly cases, President Biden, now nearing the end of his term in the White House, “has the freedom to act on his values ​​and save dozens of lives,” as Bruenig correctly observes. ” He must use his clemency authority “to keep his campaign promises and honor the dignity of human life.”

Preventing Trump from another grisly execution spree is the last thing the president has the authority to do. This is an opportunity not to miss above.

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