Trump — who ordered 13 executions — furious as Biden halts 'federal killing machine'

24 December 2024

President Joe Biden recently commuted the sentences of nearly all federal death row inmates with less than a month remaining before he leaves the White House. Now, President-elect Donald Trump is raging at the lame-duck president on social media.

The Daily Beast reported that Trump took to his Truth Social account to blast Biden for the wave of commutations, in which Biden freed 37 inmates who Trump would have been able to execute beginning on January 20. In the post, the president-elect referred to the freed inmates as "the worst killers in our Country."

"When you hear the acts of each, you won’t believe that he did this. Makes no sense," Trump posted. "Relatives and friends are further devastated. They can’t believe this is happening!"

"As soon as I am inaugurated, I will direct the Justice Department to vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers and monsters," Trump wrote in a subsequent Truth Social post. "We will be a Nation of Law and Order again!"

The Beast quoted Amnesty International Executive Director Paul O'Brien, who praised Biden for preventing Trump from carrying out future executions in his second term. During his first term as president, Trump ordered the executions of 13 federal death row inmates – a record high.

"It is near certain that Donald Trump will re-start the federal killing machine where he left off, and we remain concerned about the human rights of those who are still on federal and military death row," O'Brien stated.

Heather Turner, whose mother was killed by a bank robber that received one of Biden's commutations, called the outgoing president's commutation a "gross abuse of power" and said that Biden and his supporters "have blood on their hands." But according to the Beast, retired police officer Donnie Olivero, whose law enforcement partner was killed by one of the commutation recipients, stated that Biden "has done what is right" and acknowledged that carrying out the inmate's execution "would have brought me no peace."

Biden's commutations were for all federal death row inmates, save for three: Dzokhar Tsarnaev, who carried out the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013; Dylann Roof, who massacred nine people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015 and Robert Gregory Bowers, who killed 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2018.

“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 stated upon issuing the commutations. “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."

"In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted," he added.

Click here to read the Beast's full article (subscription required).

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