WASHINGTON — The Pittsburgh synagogue shooter’s federal death sentence remains intact, after President Joe Biden commuted 37 of the 40 sentences of prisoners on federal death row.
All of the three men still sentenced to death committed crimes that were motivated by hate or terrorism.
Biden’s announcement early Monday morning is among a number of measures he is taking to protect his policies and vision ahead of Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration. Biden froze the use of the death penalty while in office and Trump has said he plans to resume executions for federal death row inmates.
“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 House statement said.
The list named 37 people slated for commutation. Not on the list were Robert Bowers, sentenced to death last year for gunning down 11 worshipers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the pro-Chechnya terrorist who with his brother carried out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three people; and Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who gunned down nine worshippers at a historic Black church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015.
Biden’s statement did not name those three, but explained why they were left off.
“He believes that America must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder – which is why today’s actions apply to all but those cases,” the statement said.
Pope Francis appealed to Biden, a practicing Roman Catholic, earlier this month to clear federal death row.
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