Biden commutes sentences of 37 federal death row inmates

Tia Mitchell, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Dec 23, 2024

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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced early Monday that he was commuting the death sentences of 37 federal inmates, preventing incoming President Donald Trump from carrying out their executions. The list includes two men sentenced to death for murders committed in Georgia.

Anthony George Battle was convicted by an Atlanta jury of the Dec. 21, 1994, killing of a prison guard and later became the first Georgia man to receive a federal death sentence under a 1988 law that restored capital punishment.

A jury found Meier Jason Brown guilty of killing a postal worker during a Nov. 30, 2002, robbery attempt in Liberty County.

The sentences of Battle, Brown and the other 35 federal inmates were commuted from the death penalty to life in prison without the possibility of 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 in a statement announcing his decision. “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.”

In 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a moratorium on federal executions to fulfill a campaign promise made by Biden during his 2020 campaign. That moratorium did not apply to inmates convicted of terrorism or mass murders fueled by hate, but no federal inmates have been executed since Biden took office.

His commutation leaves three people off the commutation list whose crimes fall under these categories: Robert Bowers, convicted in the 2018 antisemitic attack that killed 11 at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh; Dylann Roof, a white supremacist who killed nine people attending services at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston in 2015; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted of detonating a bomb during the Boston Marathon in a 2013 terror attack that killed three people and injured more than 500.

Still, the 37 commutations Biden approved are likely to draw criticism because of the heinous details of many of the convictions.

Biden faced pressure in recent weeks to limit Trump’s ability to resume executions, especially from religious and human rights groups that have long lobbied against the death penalty. These groups claim such sentences qualify as cruel and inhumane punishments, and they point to research that shows the death penalty is applied unevenly and often with bias.

Pope Francis earlier this month prayed that the sentences of inmates on death row in the United States be commuted or changed. Biden, who is Catholic, spoke with the pope days later and is scheduled to meet with him at the Vatican next month.

Trump authorized and had the Justice Department carry out 13 executions, all in the final six months of his term in office. Among them was William LeCroy Jr., who had been sentenced to death for raping and killing a nurse practitioner in her Gilmer County home on Oct. 7, 2001.

Atlanta criminal defense attorney Jack Martin, who represented Battle at trial, was elated to hear the news that his client will no longer face the same fate.

“He was clearly mentally ill, and he should never have received the death penalty,” Martin said. “We are so thankful President Biden understood that. This is just another example of why the president’s commutation power is so important.”

The White House released statements from over a dozen people who had advocated for this action and are now applauding the decision, including Martin Luther King III.

“This is a historic day,” King said. “By commuting these sentences, President Biden has done what no president before him was willing to do: take meaningful and lasting action not just to acknowledge the death penalty’s racist roots but also to remedy its persistent unfairness.”

Joia Thornton, who resides in Atlanta and is founder of the anti-capital punishment organization Faith Leaders of Color Coalition, had led a campaign urging the president to take this action by submitting letters from more than 200 clergy members.

“President Biden has answered the prayers of hundreds of Black faith leaders who urged him to make this courageous decision,” she said. “This decision also ensures that the door to redemption remains open for the men who will now serve life sentences instead of facing execution.”

-Bill Rankin contributed to this article.