A spokesperson for President-elect Trump lashed out on Monday in opposition to President Biden‘s choice to commute the demise sentences of 37 inmates on federal demise row, calling the transfer a “a slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones.”
In a brief assertion, Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, famous the totally different approaches to crime between Biden and Trump.
“These are among the worst killers in the world and this abhorrent decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones,” he stated in a press release. “President Trump stands for the rule of law, which will return when he is back in the White House after he was elected with a massive mandate from the American people.”
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Social media erupted on Monday after President Biden introduced he would commute the sentences of almost all of the inmates on federal demise row. (AP )
The White Home introduced that Biden was commuting the demise sentences to life with out the opportunity of parole on Monday. Among the many victims of the 37 males are regulation enforcement officers, youngsters and different inmates.
“Biden’s decision is a slap in the face to the victims and to the families of the victims that thought justice was going to be served,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., wrote on X.
Many different Republican lawmakers echoed the identical reactions.
Biden believes the federal demise penalty ought to solely be imposed for acts of terrorism and hate-motivated killings, the White Home stated.
“When President Biden came into office, his Administration imposed a moratorium on federal executions, and his actions today will prevent the next Administration from carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice,” the White Home stated.
Three federal inmates whose demise sentences weren’t commuted are Robert Bowers, who’s liable for the mass capturing on the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, which left 11 individuals lifeless; Dylann Roof, a White supremacist who killed 9 Black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who labored along with his now-dead brother to perpetrate the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three individuals and injured lots of.
Biden stated the transfer would stop the incoming Trump administration from finishing up the executions.
“In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted,” he stated.
The motion got here after Biden commuted the sentences of almost 1,500 prisoners positioned in residence confinement through the COVID-19 pandemic and pardoned 40 others, together with his son, Hunter.
As of Dec. 13, Biden has pardoned a complete of 65 people and commuted sentences for 1,634 inmates throughout his time as president, in keeping with the Division of Justice.
Hunter Biden flashes an enormous smile as he leaves an Arby’s in Santa Barbara on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. That is the primary time that the son of President Joe Biden has been photographed since he was pardoned by his father. (The Picture Direct for Fox Information Digital)
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“The President has issued more sentence commutations at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same point in their first terms,” White Home officers stated in a earlier assertion.
Trump has taken a troublesome stance on the demise penalty, beforehand suggesting that drug sellers must be eligible for the final word punishment.
“We’re going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught selling drugs, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts,” Trump stated earlier this 12 months on the marketing campaign trial. “Because it’s the only way.”
