Staff Reports
A coalition of federal and state legal heavyweights — from prosecutors to judges, sprinkled with a few religious leaders for good measure — recently unleashed a well-documented plea to President Biden, urging him to grant clemency to dozens of federal death-row inmates. Their reasoning borders on the melodramatic; they label the death penalty “barbaric, racially biased, immoral, and outdated.” Clearly, some folks are too eager to score a few virtue-signaling points by trying to rescind justice on behalf of ever-so-controversial inmates, potentially before President Trump, a strong advocate of capital punishment, takes the reins again in January.
The letters sent to Biden portray the federal death penalty as a great national tragedy, asserting that it represents failures within the justice system, complete with “inequities” and “errors.” Apparently, failing to comprehend the gravity of someone like Dylann Roof, who slaughtered innocents in Charleston, or the Boston Marathon Bomber, is not a luxury these advocates can afford. It’s fascinating how some insist on equating justice with compassion for those who have committed heinous acts, diverging worry far from the lives lost.
Among the 40 on federal death row are a mix of infamously skilled criminals and a couple of under-the-radar offenders who engaged in violent crimes. The true irony lies in the fact that while death row may house some truly dastardly individuals, these advocates seem more concerned about protecting the rights of murderers than ensuring justice for their victims. The gall is staggering: the majority on death row happen to be in state prisons, yet the spotlight shines brightly on this tiny segment, likely for its sensational headline potential.
As the clock ticks ominously towards the Trump era, these justice warriors seem panicked. They know that Trump’s administration might aggressively pursue executions that had been dormant for nearly two decades before his last term. What’s remarkable is that Biden, who famously promised to abolish the federal death penalty, has resorted to inaction while simultaneously arguing for it in some cases, including white supremacists—a glaring contradiction that raises eyebrows from both sides of the aisle.
Biden urged to commute federal death-penalty sentences before he leaves officehttps://t.co/pcsOJVk6rR pic.twitter.com/LKXZKJNX5U
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) December 10, 2024
Perhaps the most comical aspect of this entire charade is Biden’s recent pardon of his own son rather than a wholesale clemency package for others in lower-tier prisons. It does seem slightly disingenuous when the self-proclaimed champion of justice seems to skirt past a broader effort to alleviate the prison population in favor of protecting family interests. One cannot help but wonder how this will play into Biden’s narrative of justice as he mulls over preemptive pardons for allies like Liz Cheney or Anthony Fauci. Hypocrisy appears to be alive and well.
Biden’s hesitance to act on capital punishment illustrates the conflict between his campaign rhetoric and the reality of governance. Just as he is dragged into a political maelstrom over selective pardons, he risks further alienating not only conservatives but even liberals who feel he has dropped the ball on more pressing issues. Either Biden takes a firm stance on what he believes, or he may find himself fumbling on two fronts, trying to please a myriad of factions without committing to any. No matter the outcome, the narrative is clear: the death penalty is a hot-button topic, one that continues to reveal the fractures in not just policy, but in the very ethics that drive those policies.
