₦airaland Forum

Biden commutes death sentences of child killers and mass murderers 2 days before Christmas

"In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted."

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.

Among those receiving the holiday cheer is Thomas Sanders, who in 2010 kidnapped and then shot 12-year-old Lexis Roberts four times and cut her throat in Louisiana — days after the girl watched as Sanders murdered her mother on a road trip near the Grand Canyon.

Christmas also came early for Anthony Battle, who murdered an Atlanta prison guard with a hammer in 1994 while serving a life sentence for raping and murdering his wife, a US Marine, in 1987 at Camp Lejeune, NC.

Jorge Avila-Torrez sexually assaulted and stabbed to death two girls — Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9 — who had been riding their bicycles in their neighborhood in a suburb north of Chicago in 2005.

OLAADEGBU:
PARTING GIFT: The move is aimed at preventing the Trump administration from carrying out executions that would not take place under the moratorium Biden issued in 2021. More details. https://trib.al/nvIzt0K

dominique:
I don't want to imagine how the families of the victims must be feeling right now

Angelfrost:
This makes absolutely no sense...!

Biden's failures underscore the pathetic leaning of the entire leftists.

More concerned about scoring cheap political points than actually leading their nation to greatness.

dominique:
I don't want to imagine how the families of the victims must be feeling right now

Flangelo12:
He has always been against the death sentence.

Beuberry:
Biden goofed. He should have ordered their quick execution.
Cos he freed his son, he is acting like someone with true clemency

Beuberry:
Biden goofed. He should have ordered their quick execution.
Cos he freed his son, he is acting like someone with true clemency.

No problem. He dey pardon hardened criminals. The families of the victims world have wished to administer jungle justice. Everything just went south for Republicans. Ashamed for them.

Flangelo12:
He has always been against the death sentence.

lexy2014:
maybe cos his child is not one of the victims killed by the murderers

Flangelo12:
Spending the rest of their lives in prison would prevent such greatness?