on monday Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 death row inmatescommuting their sentences to life in prison without parole.
Only three inmates faced the death penalty, including convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Robert Bowers, who was sentenced to death for killing 11 worshipers and wounding seven in the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh.
A third, Dylann Roof, was sentenced to death in 2017 for the 2015 mass shooting of nine black congregants at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
While the move was widely praised by human rights groups such as Amnesty International, it was quickly condemned by some Republicans as well as Trump’s transition team and political allies.
In a statement, Trump’s communications director Stephen Cheng said, “These are some of the worst killers in the world, and this disgusting decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families and their loved ones.
“President Trump stands for the rule of law, which will return when he returns to the White House,” he added. Trump cannot reverse the changes when he returns to the White House next month.
Texas Republican Chip Roy wrote on X that the decision was “dishonest” and an abuse of power “to effectuate a miscarriage of justice.”
Another Republican, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, said that “when given a choice between law-abiding Americans or criminals, Joe Biden and the Democrats choose the criminals every time.”
Some family members also expressed anger.
On Facebook, Heather Turner, whose mother was killed in a 2017 bank robbery, called the replacements a “gross abuse of power.”
“The president did not consider the victims in any way,” she wrote. “He and his supporters have blood on their hands.”
The commutation does not apply to the approximately 2,200 death row inmates sentenced by state courts over which the president has no authority.
