Several federal inmates from Texas are among 37 people on death row who had their sentences commuted by President Joe Biden Monday morning.
Why did Biden commute the sentences of 37 federal inmates?
Biden announced Monday that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment mere weeks before President-elect Donald Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office.
Seven of the inmates whose sentences were commuted were from Texas. There is a full list of those inmates and their crimes further down.
The move spares the lives of people convicted in killings, including the slayings of police and military officers, people on federal land and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, as well as the killings of guards or prisoners in federal facilities.
“I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement. “Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”
The Biden administration in 2021 announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment to study the protocols used, which suspended executions during Biden’s term. But Biden actually had promised to go further on the issue in the past, pledging to end federal executions without the caveats for terrorism and hate-motivated, mass killings.
While running for president in 2020, Biden’s campaign website said he would “work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level, and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example.”
Similar language didn’t appear on Biden’s reelection website before he left the presidential race in July.
“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden’s statement said. “But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice president, and now president, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”
He took a political jab at Trump, saying, “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
The president’s announcement also comes less than two weeks after he commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, and of 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes, the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
The announcement also followed the post-election pardon that Biden granted his son Hunter on federal gun and tax charges after long saying he would not issue one, sparking an uproar in Washington. The pardon also raised questions about whether he would issue sweeping preemptive pardons for administration officials and other allies who the White House worries could be unjustly targeted by Trump’s second administration.
Full list of Texas inmates whose death sentences were commuted
Here is a list of the federal inmates on death row from Texas who had their sentences commuted and converted into life in prison:
- Shannon Wayne Agofsky – Convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of a prisoner in a federal prison.
- Christopher Emory Cramer – Convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of a fellow prisoner in a federal prison.
- Joseph Ebron – Convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of a prisoner in a federal prison.
- Ricky Allen Fackrell – Convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of a fellow prisoner in a federal prison.
- Edgar Baltazar Garcia – Convicted and sentenced to death for the fatal stabbing of a fellow prisoner while incarcerated in a federal prison.
- Julius Omar Robinson – Convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of two men in drug-related incidents in Fort Worth.
- Mark Isaac Snarr – Convicted and sentenced to death for the fatal stabbing of a fellow prisoner while incarcerated in a federal prison.
Source: The White House and the Death Penalty Information Center
Who are the 3 inmates still on federal death row?
There are just three federal inmates who are still facing execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of life Synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history.