Thousands of religious and civic leaders are calling on President Biden to commute the sentences of all federal inmates on death row before his term ends in January.
Those calling for this released letters today through more than a dozen organizations across the political, religious and social spectrum. These include pro-life conservatives, former corrections officers, civil rights advocates, and those who have lost loved ones to homicide, among others.
According to a statement from Equal Justice USA (EJUSA), the coordination of this action “reflects the widespread, bipartisan concern about the death penalty system and a growing national shift away from capital punishment.”
In EJUSA’s letter to Biden, CEO Jamila Hodge said, “President Biden, like me a person of deep faith in God, has a historic opportunity to demonstrate mercy and the belief that we are all redeemable, by preventing an execution spree that will not make us safer, while moving us closer to reckoning with a system that unfairly targets Black people.”
A letter signed by over 150 family members of murder victims appealed to Biden’s shared experience of having lost loved ones. “We know that you understand the pain of losing a loved one is ever present,” the letter reads. “But for too many of us, the death penalty has only prolonged an already agonizing experience with a lengthy process that leaves us with more pain, despair, and isolation.”
Biden lost his first wife and a daughter in a car crash. His son, Beau, died of cancer.
The letter goes on to say, “The death penalty does not prevent violence. It does not solve crime. It divides families when we need each other the most, polarizing us, telling us that only some murders are heinous, and creating more trauma for more families.”
A group of pro-life conservatives, including pastors, social workers and students, said, “In calling ourselves ‘pro-life,’ we are committed to a consistent ethic that affirms life begins at conception and ends in natural death. The death penalty, in both theory and in practice, directly contradicts this principle and forever ends the possibility of growth and redemption.”
Representatives from Faith Leaders of Color noted the immediate benefits of commuting these sentences. These include acknowledging “the racial bias built into the federal death penalty system, allow[ing] vast government resources to be redirected to policies that actually improve public safety, and allow[ing] the families of victims and incarcerated persons to focus on healing instead of living in legal limbo.”
Other groups sending letters to the president include The Innocence Project, the Catholic Mobilizing Network, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and others.
There are currently 40 prisoners in the U.S. on federal death row, with hundreds more awaiting execution by the states. Of the federal prisoners sentenced to death, thirteen have been waiting for 20 years or more.
Despite the fact that slightly more than 14% of the U.S. consists of individuals racialized as Black, that population represents 38% of federal death row inmates.
The last inmate executed by the United States was Dustin John Higgs, who died by lethal injection on January 16, 2021. Currently, two federal inmates are scheduled for execution in the remaining weeks of this year.
Senior Editor at Good Faith Media.
