“State-sanctioned murder is not justice. The death penalty is a cruel, racist, and fundamentally flawed punishment that has no place in our society,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley.
Congressional Democrats urged President Biden on Tuesday to commute the sentences of 40 federal inmates on death row before he leaves office next month, claiming human rights violations. The inmates they asked to be spared include one of the Boston Marathon bombers, mass shooters, and child murderers, Breitbart News reported.
"Today, on human rights day, we call on President Biden to do the right thing, to use his clemency authority to commute the death sentences of the 40 individuals on death row, to resentence them to a prison term, and to save lives," Democrat Rep. Ayanna Pressley said at a press conference. "State-sanctioned murder is not justice. And the death penalty is a cruel, racist, and fundamentally flawed punishment that has no place in our society."
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View on XShe said that the death penalty is "deeply discriminatory" and "has disproportionately been weaponized against black, brown, and low-income families for far too long," and called for Biden to "make good on his campaign promise to address the federal death penalty."
Additionally, Pressley claimed that President-elect Donald Trump's first administration went on an "execution spree" by enforcing the death sentences of federal inmates on death row. The Congressional Democratic lawmakers asked Biden to resentence them to prison terms.
Rep. Cory Bush (D-MO) echoed her colleague's notions at the press conference, calling the death sentence "a barbaric, inhumane practice most often weaponized against the most vulnerable among us." She claimed further: "The overwhelming majority of people on death row are black and brown. Biden has the power to save lives."
Breitbart News reported that Pressley and Bush are requesting that Biden commute the death sentences of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted for his part in the Boston Marathon bombing terrorist attack that resulted in the deaths of three individuals; Daniel Troya, who was convicted of drug-related killings of a family, including two children; Marvin Gabrion, who was convicted of kidnapping and murdering 19-year-old Rachel Timmerman; Robert Bowers, who was convicted of murdering 11 Jewish Americans in a Pennsylvania synangogue; and Brandon Basham, who was convicted of raping and killing 44-year-old Alice Donovon, among others.
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