President Joe Biden left three killers behind when he announced he was commuting the sentences of 37 Death Row prisoners.
The reprieved inmates—all of them convicted murderers—had their death penalty sentences replaced by life imprisonment without parole.
But the president left three men behind on Death Row despite saying in a statement that he was “more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”
Donald Trump has made it clear he is a strong supporter of capital punishment. Thirteen people were executed during his first term in office, and he said on the campaign trail this year that he was in favor of expanding the death penalty to include child abusers, drug dealers, and human traffickers.
Announcing the commuted sentences on Monday, Biden also said: “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
There was no explanation for why he left three men out, but he was accused of playing politics over concerns of a possible backlash if he pardoned high-profile killers.
Death Penalty Action said the president should “finish the job.”
The three remaining Death Row Inmates are:
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19-years-old, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing. / Handout / FBI/Getty Images
Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured in the bomb attack on the Boston Marathon that shocked the world on April 15, 2013. Tsarnaev, 31, was convicted of 30 charges including using a weapon of mass destruction. He also killed Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Officer Sean Collier as he tried to escape.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, his older brother, died in a gunfight with police several days after the bombing.
The attack was intended to punish America for wars in Muslim countries.
Dylann Roof
Dylann Storm Roof is seen in his booking photo after he was apprehended as the main suspect in the mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church that killed nine people on June 18, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina. / Handout/Getty Images
Dylann Roof shot dead nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015 in an attack he claimed he carried out intending to ignite a race war.
The worshippers were killed when Roof, 30, opened fire during a Bible study class.
He was convicted of murder and other charges, including nine racially motivated hate crimes, and was sentenced to death in 2017.
Robert Bowers
Robert Bowers / Police mugshot
Anti-Semite truck driver Bowers, 50, killed eleven congregants and wounded seven others at the Tree of Life Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 and was sentenced to death for the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.
Armed with an assault rifle and three handguns, he gunned down the worshippers during the Saturday morning Sabbath services.
He was found guilty of 63 charges in connection with the attack and sentenced to death in Aug. 2023.
