Democrats in Congress are urging President Joe Biden, who is set to leave office next month, to commute the death sentences of 40 federal prisoners, including one of the Boston Marathon bombers, individuals convicted of child murders, mass shootings, and brutal killings of women.
“Today, on human rights day, we call on President Biden to do the right thing — to use his clemency authority to commute the death sentences of the 40 individuals on death row, to resentence them to a prison term, and to save lives,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) stated during a press conference.
“State-sanctioned murder is not justice,” Pressley added. “The death penalty is a cruel, racist fundamentally flawed punishment that has no place in our society.”
Pressley also criticized the administration of President-elect Donald Trump, accusing it of launching an “execution spree” by carrying out the death sentences of those on federal death row.
Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) similarly condemned the death penalty, calling it “a barbaric, inhumane practice most often weaponized against the most vulnerable among us” due to the fact that “the overwhelming majority of people on death row are black and brown.”
“President Biden has the power to save lives,” Bush said.
Among the death sentences that Pressley and Bush are urging Biden to commute are those of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted for his role in the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people; Daniel Troya, convicted of drug-related murders of a family, including two children; Marvin Gabrion, convicted of kidnapping and murdering 19-year-old Rachel Timmerman; Robert Bowers, convicted of killing 11 Jewish Americans in a Pennsylvania synagogue; and Brandon Basham, convicted of raping and killing 44-year-old Alice Donovan, among others.
{Matzav.com}