What’s New
Heather Turner, whose mother Donna Major was killed in a 2017 bank robbery by one of the men whose sentence was commuted on Monday, posted to Facebook that “at no point did the president consider the victims.”
“The pain and trauma we have endured over the last 7 years has been indescribable,” Turner wrote. “Our government is a joke. Joe Biden‘s decision is a clear gross abuse of power. He, and his supporters, have blood on their hands.”
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment.
Why It Matters
On Monday, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row. Turner told Fox News that she is “still angry” about Biden’s decision.
“I am upset that this is even happening, that one man can make this decision without even talking to the victims, without any regard for what we’ve been through, what we’re going through, and completely hurt, frustrated and angry,” Turner said.
Alex Snell, the brother of the 20-year-old victim another man commuted, Jorge Avila-Torrez, killed, told The New York Post he needs an explanation from Biden. Snell’s sister, Amanda Snell, was fatally strangled in 2009 by Avila-Torrez in her barracks in Arlington, Virginia. Avila-Torrez also was accused of sexually assaulting and murdering two girls as well as raping a graduate student.
“He should have gotten that penalty,” Snell said. “I’d rather see it go back to the way it was, where he was sentenced to death.”
Tim Timmerman, whose daughter was killed by one of the men whose sentence was commuted on Monday, said in an interview with Fox40 that President Biden offered a “Christmas gift to the perpetrators of murder.”
“I think President Biden offered a Christmas gift to the perpetrators of murder, but he offered only pain to the victims, the families of the victims,” Timmerman said.
Timmerman said his daughter’s murderer, Marvin Gabrion, deserved the death penalty after killing his daughter Rachel in 1997 by throwing her into a lake weighed down while she was still alive.
“You couldn’t imagine someone that deserved it more than Mr. Gabrion,” Timmerman said. “He killed at least five people. Where’s the justice in just giving him a prison bed to die comfortably in?”
Biden also commuted Daryl Lawrence who murdered Columbus, Ohio, police officer Bryan Hurst, whose widow told the Columbus Dispatch that the President’s decision was “distressing news.”
“While this is truly distressing news on a personal level for my family, it also feels like a complete dismissal and undermining of the federal justice system,” Marissa Gibson said. “Lawrence’s sentence was imposed by a jury, and it should be upheld as such.”
What To Know
Executions and death sentences remain at near historic lows amid rising disapproval for the death penalty, the unfairness of its application and questions about innocence, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center’s (DPIC) year-end report published Thursday.
This year is the tenth consecutive year with fewer than 30 executions at a time when support for the death penalty remains at a five-decade low, the report said.
There were 26 new death sentences in 2024 among 10 states, but two states that allow nonunanimous sentencing—Florida and Alabama—were responsible for 11 of them, the report said.
Gallup polling suggests 53 percent of Americans support it and 43 percent oppose it—a significant change from 2010 when 64 percent of Americans supported it against 29 percent opposed it.
Biden had faced pressure from advocacy groups, lawmakers and religious leaders including Pope Francis, to clear federal death row before leaving office to prevent President-elect Donald Trump from embarking on another spree of federal executions after returning to office.
Trump broke his silence earlier on Tuesday about the issue, saying the President’s decision “makes no sense.”
“Joe Biden just commuted the Death Sentence on 37 of the worst killers in our Country,” Trump said. “When you hear the acts of each, you won’t believe that he did this.”
The President did not commute the death sentences of Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Charleston church killer Dylann Roof, and Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers. They will be the only three left on the federal execution list when Trump, a proponent of the death penalty, takes office on January 20.
Trump resumed federal executions after a 17-year hiatus in July 2020, overseeing 13 federal executions in the final six months of his first term. During his re-election campaign, Trump pledged to resume and expand the federal death penalty.
What People Are Saying
Trump Rapid Response, in an email to Newsweek: “Joe Biden has left families hurting with his disgusting commutations of brutal killers before Christmas.”
Biden in his commutation statement Monday: “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.”
Donnie Oliverio, a retired Ohio police officer whose partner, Bryan Hurst, was killed by Daryl Lawrence, one of the men whose sentence was commuted, said in a statement previously provided to Newsweek: “Putting to death the person who killed my police partner and best friend would have brought me no peace…The president has done what is right here, and what is consistent with the faith he and I share. Thank you, Mr. President.”
What Happens Next
Trump cannot reverse Biden’s commutations, so the 37 men whose death sentences Biden has commuted will not face execution for their convicted crimes. The three men who remain on federal death row have filed appeals.
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