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Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 inmates on federal death row, meaning they’ll be spared execution.
Weeks before the 82-year-old Democratic president hands the White House keys to Donald Trump, Mr Biden has used his remaining time to make a decisive statement against capital punishment.
According to local reports, 37 out of 40 federal prisoners facing the death penalty will have their sentences replaced with life in prison without parole.
"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 about the commuted sentences in a statement.
"But guided by my conscience and my experience... I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level," he said. "In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted."
Among the federal inmates who will now serve life in prison instead of execution are murders that have killed other inmates and prison guards, as well as prisoners that have killed people during bank robberies.
The remaining three men on federal death row are Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, as well as Dylann Roof and Robert Bowers who were both involved with mass shootings.
Of the 16 federal executions that have been carried out in modern times, 13 of them took place within a six-month period during Trump’s first time in office.
Federal executions have been on hold ever since Mr Biden took office in January 2021.
Mr Biden’s decision to commute the 37 federal death row inmates will be a blow to Mr Trump, who recently announced plans to resume and ramp up federal executions.
It also marks a considerable uptick in commutations by sitting Democratic presidents: Barack Obama commuted two death row inmates during his term while Bill Clinton only commuted one.
Unlike executive orders, decisions to grant clemency to the 37 inmates cannot be reversed by the incoming Republican president.
Mr Biden’s latest round of clemency came shortly after he commuted almost 1,500 sentences and pardoned a further 39 people convicted of non-violent crimes. It marked the biggest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
At the time, Mr Biden vowed to continue reviewing clemency petitions in his remaining time in office.
He said: “As president, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses.”
The departing president also recently pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, who was facing sentences in two criminal cases.
