Trump slams decision to commute death sentences

WASHINGTON — US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday slammed outgoing President Joe Biden's decision to commute the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row.

"Joe Biden just commuted the Death Sentence on 37 of 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 said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

Trump's remarks came one day after Biden announced that he was commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole.

"I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level," Biden said. "In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted."

In another post on Tuesday, Trump said that as soon as he is inaugurated, he will direct the Justice Department to "vigorously pursue the death penalty" to protect US families and children from "violent rapists, murderers, and monsters".

He highlighted the cases of two men who were on federal death row for slaying a woman and a girl, had admitted to killing more and had their sentences commuted by Biden.

On the campaign trail, Trump often called for expanding the federal death penalty — including for those who kill police officers, those convicted of drug and human trafficking, and migrants who kill US citizens.

"Trump has been fairly consistent in wanting to sort of say that he thinks the death penalty is an important tool and he wants to use it," said Douglas Berman, an expert on criminal sentencing at Ohio State University's law school. "But whether practically any of that can happen, either under existing law or other laws, is a heavy lift."

Most people in the US have historically supported the death penalty for people convicted of murder, according to decades of annual polling by Gallup, but support has declined over the past few decades. About half were in favor in an October poll, while roughly 7 in 10 backed capital punishment for murderers in 2007.

Death row inmates in the US are mostly sentenced by states. Before Biden's commutation, there were 40 federal death row inmates compared with more than 2,000 who were sentenced to death by states.

Xinhua - Agencies