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Joe Biden Could Save The Lives Of Federal Death Row Prisoners

Joe Biden Could Save The Lives Of Federal Death Row Prisoners

The US President has been urged to commute the sentences of inmates set for execution

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

Joe Biden could save the lives of prisoners currently sitting on federal death row.

The US President has been urged to make the call and instruct the Justice Department to commute all sentences.

According to Associated Press, officials have claimed Mr Biden has discussed the possibility of taking the order, though a decision has yet to be confirmed.

If the 78-year-old goes through with it, this will mean no more federal inmates will be executed during his term in office.

However, if a new president is elected in 2024, they will have the power to repeal the decision.

This comes after a number of prisoners were put to death in the final months of Donald Trump's presidency.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, as well as dozens of other major organisations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, have called on Mr Biden to end the death penalty.

Joe Biden could save the lives of 49 federal death row inmates.
PA

In a letter addressed to the President, the group says: "For seventeen years, the federal government took a hiatus from federal executions until, in July 2019, the Trump administration announced a new lethal injection protocol and with it, the intention to resume federal executions.

"While initially delayed over just six months, former President Donald Trump's Justice Department hurriedly moved to execute thirteen individuals -Daniel Lee, Wesley Purkey, Dustin Honken, Lezmond Mitchell, Keith Nelson, William LeCroy, Jr., Christopher Vialva, Orlando Hall, Brandon Bernard, Alfred Bourgeois, Lisa Montgomery, Corey Johnson, and Dustin Higgs -just before the end of his presidency.

"Such state-sanctioned killing is not only inhumane, but in deep conflict with many of our country's most fundamental democratic principles and civil rights protections.

"A cruel and unusual punishment, the death penalty fails to comport with either the 8th or 14th Amendments and violates our obligations under international law.

"Since 1973, more than 170 individuals have been sentenced to death and exonerated on innocence grounds, demonstrating the high propensity for error in our criminal legal system and the unfathomable consequences that may follow."

Human rights groups have called for the death centre at Terre Haute to be pulled down.
PA

Adding: "The only way to eliminate the possibility of executing an innocent person is to do away with the punishment altogether."

The letter also calls on Mr Biden to destroy the federal death chamber at FCC Terre Haute and end all pending death penalty trial cases.

Last month, the only woman on US federal death row was executed following a Supreme Court decision.

Lisa Montgomery was sentenced to death after being convicted for the 2004 murder of a mother and the kidnapping of her baby.

On 12 January, a judge had ordered a delay on the execution while a mental health assessment could be carried out.

However, the US Supreme Court overturned the decision and the 52-year-old was executed by lethal injection at 1.30am on 13 January at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute in Indiana.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: joe biden, Death Penalty, US Politics, US President, Donald Trump, Politics