President Biden: Commute the Row
President Biden must fulfill his campaign promise to address the failed death penalty and commute federal death sentences before Trump takes office.
Fast Facts
The proportion of people of color the federal government has executed since 1977.
The percentage of people executed by the federal government from just three states: Texas, Virginia, and Missouri.
The percentage of people currently on federal death row who are people of color.
The facts are clear. The death penalty is an inhumane and outdated practice. It is error prone, racially biased, and doesn’t make our communities safer. As Donald Trump returns to the White House, urgent action is needed. In the final six months of his first term, President Trump executed more people than any president in the past 120 years. Today, President-elect Trump has plans to execute every person on federal death row and his past actions indicate that he plans to follow through on his promises.
President Biden has an opportunity to make history by addressing the racist and unjust federal death penalty system and keep an early campaign promise he made to the American people. Commuting the sentences of those on death row would help end the death penalty once and for all and prevent a second execution spree by President Trump. Trump’s first act of political theater ended in the execution of 13 people. President Biden shouldn’t allow Trump to repeat that travesty.
Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU
The ACLU has fought for years to end the death penalty and we are calling on President Biden to commute federal death sentences now and halt Trump’s plans to go on another execution spree.
On December 9, more than 130 civil and human rights organizations, led by the ACLU, Amnesty International USA, Southern Poverty Law Center, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, issued a letter to President Biden urging him to commute the sentences of people on federal death row before he leaves office. This is one of more than a dozen letters released from hundreds of stakeholders from across the political and faith spectrums.
Voices Against Executions
Americans across the political and faith spectrum are in favor of ending this inhumane practice. In the videos below, advocates explain why President Biden must commute death sentences.