Can Donald Trump undo Joe Biden’s death penalty commutations?

With just weeks left in office, US President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 inmates on federal death row – a move that could thwart President Donald Trump’s plans to expand the state’s executions during his incoming administration.

Mr. Biden’s move was quickly criticized by Republicans, with some accusing the president of colluding with terrorists against law-abiding Americans.

Public executions were rare before Trump’s first term, which ended with a series of executions that ended a 130-year-old pattern of stopping executions during presidential transitions.

He has vowed to reintroduce the practice when he returns to the White House in January, and to put in place measures to combat potential crimes early in the administration.

Here’s what we know.

On Monday, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 death row inmateschanging their sentence to life without forgiveness.

Only three inmates remain on death row, including Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Robert Bowers, who was sentenced to death for killing 11 worshipers and wounding seven in a shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.

A third, Dylann Roof, was sentenced to death in 2017 for the 2015 mass shooting that killed nine black people at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

While the move was widely praised by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, it was quickly criticized by some Republicans, as well as Trump’s reform movement and political allies.

In his statement, Mr. Steven Cheung, director of Mr. Trump, said that “these are some of the worst killers in the world and Mr. Joe Biden’s disgusting idea is a slap in the face to the victims, their families and their loved ones.

“President Trump is standing for the law, which he will reverse when he returns to the White House,” he added. Trump is unlikely to reverse the changes when he returns to the White House next month.

Texas Republican Chip Roy wrote on X that the decision was “unconscionable” and an abuse of power “in justice”.

Another Republican, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, said that “when given a choice between law-abiding Americans or terrorists, Joe Biden and the Democrats always choose terrorists.”

Other family members were also angry.

On Facebook, Heather Turner – whose mother was killed in a bank robbery in 2017 – called the change an “abuse of power”.

“At no time did the President think about the victims,” ​​he wrote. “He, and his followers, have blood on their hands.”

The change does not affect the approximately 2,200 prisoners who are being executed by state courts, over which the president has no control.

During his election campaign, Trump vowed to restore federal executions and make more people eligible for the death penalty, including those convicted of child abuse or human trafficking, as well as immigrants who kill US citizens or police officers. .

“These are dangerous, dangerous, dangerous people who are causing death, murder and crime across the country,” Trump said when he announced his candidacy for president in 2022.

“We ask anyone who sells drugs, caught, to receive the death penalty for their evil deeds,” he added.

There are more than 40 federal statutes that can, theoretically, result in the death penalty, ranging from murders committed during drug shootings to manslaughter.

Almost all – except for espionage and conspiracy – involve the death of the victim.

Trump, however, has not said much about how he plans to fulfill his campaign promise.

Despite the lack of clarity, Trump’s vows to increase the federal death penalty have drawn strong warnings from civil rights activists.

In a statement on December 11, for example, the American Civil Liberties Union said that Trump’s “dangerous” plans are an extension of “the carnage that he started during the last six months of his first presidency”.

“He has already shown us that he will fulfill these promises,” the document said.

Inmates executed within days of Trump’s first administration included Lisa Montgomery, the first woman executed by the government since 1953, and Lezmond Mitchell, the only Native American on death row.

The US media reported that Mr. Trump would not reverse the change of Biden.

Trump’s efforts to expand the death penalty for crimes that do not involve murder may face legal challenges.

For example, in 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that those found guilty of child molestation should not be put to death, and added that it is unclear whether the death penalty can be used in cases where no one is killed.

According to the National Registry of Exonerations, cases involving child victims who tend to be wrongfully exonerated, can be “highly sensitive” and upsetting to their families.

Any further expansion of crimes eligible for the federal death penalty would require Congress to act and change the law.

In 2024, two bills — both sponsored by Florida Republican and Trump ally Anna Paulina Luna — sought to expand the use of capital crimes to include possession of child pornography, as well as the sale, exploitation and abuse of children.

Both failed to reach the House of Representatives.

Trump is also unlikely to increase the number of executions in prison, as many death penalty cases take years and are subject to lengthy appeals.

Although he has no direct control over the state’s executions, some experts have warned that Trump’s proposed executions could lead to more killings in the state.

“His rhetoric can and has encouraged government leaders to take extreme measures on a number of issues, including legal proceedings,” said Yasmin Cader, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union and director of the Trone Center for. Justice and Equality told CNN.

In addition to the federal government and the US military, 27 US states still have the death penalty on the books.

A Gallup poll conducted in October found that the minority of Americans – 53% – support the death penalty for convicted criminals, up from 50% last year.