Left: Thomas Steven Sanders kidnapped and then shot 12-year-Lexis Roberts four times and cut her throat in Louisiana in 2010. Right: Jorge Avila Torrez was arrested for the murders of Laura Hobbs, 8, Krystal Tobias, 9, and Amanda Snell, 20.
No, this is not a post about some child trafficking conspiracy theory. Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 federal inmates on death row, including some who killed children.
President Biden on Monday commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 men on federal death row — a list that includes at least five child killers and several mass murderers — in a stunning act of clemency just two days before Christmas.
Biden, 82, gave the reprieve to the nation’s most violent murderers — nine of whom were found too dangerous to live after butchering fellow inmates — as part of his effort at “ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” the White House said.
“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden said in a statement.
“But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level. In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
Biden, who opposes the death penalty, lowered each of the 37 sentences to life in prison without parole. He did not say why specifically he considered the original penalties unjust.
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