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President Biden on Monday commuted the sentences of nearly all prisoners on federal death row, sparing the lives of 37 men just a month before Donald J. Trump will return to the Oval Office with a promise to restart federal executions, the New York Times reports. Those affected by Mr. Biden’s action, all of whom were convicted of murder, will serve life imprisonment without the possibility of parole instead of facing execution. Only three men, who each carried out notorious mass killings, will remain on federal death row.
“I know I hurt people when I was young. I really messed up. But I know Ron DeSantis has done a lot worse. He’s taken a lot from a lot of people. I speak for all men, women and children. He’s put his foot on our necks.”
— Donald Dillbeck, quoted by the Tallahasse Democrat, while strapped to a gurney in the Florida State Prison death chamber just before being executed.
“The greatest man who ever lived died via the death penalty for you and for me… If it wasn’t for Jesus dying via the death penalty, we would all have no hope.”
— Wyoming state Sen. Lynn Hutchings (R), quoted by the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, arguing that without the death penalty Jesus Christ would not have been able to die to resolve the sins of mankind.
60%
Of Americans say the death penalty is morally acceptable, while 34% say it is not. While this measure has remained relatively stable over time, the current 60% is on the lower end of acceptance of the death penalty nationwide since Gallup began measuring it in 2001. When Gallup began asking this question in 2001, 63% said it was morally acceptable, while 27% said it was morally wrong. The biggest wave of support for its acceptability came in 2006, at 71%, while the low mark was in 2012, at 58%.
