President-elect Donald Trump has responded to President Joe Biden commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row.
"Joe Biden just commuted the Death Sentence on 37 of the worst killers in our Country," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday.
"When you hear the acts of each, you won't believe that he did this. Makes no sense. Relatives and friends are further devastated. They can't believe this is happening!"
Biden did not commute the death sentences of Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Charleston church killer Dylann Roof, and Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers. They will be the only three left on the federal execution list when Trump, a proponent of the death penalty, takes office on January 20.
Announcing the commutations on Monday, Biden said: "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."
He added: "In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted."
Trump resumed federal executions in July 2020 after a 17-year hiatus. He oversaw 13 federal executions in his first term in the White House between 2016 and 2020.
Opponents of the death penalty welcomed Biden's decision, though some called for him to go further and commute the sentences of everyone on federal and military death row.
Meanwhile, the families and friends of victims had mixed reactions to the commutations.
Donnie Oliverio, a retired Ohio police officer whose partner, Bryan Hurst, was killed by Daryl Lawrence, one of the men whose sentence was commuted, said in a statement provided to Newsweek that "putting to death the person who killed my police partner and best friend would have brought me no peace.
"The president has done what is right here, and what is consistent with the faith he and I share. Thank you, Mr. President."
But Hurst's widow, Marissa Gibson, called Biden's decision "truly distressing." She said it "feels like a complete dismissal and undermining of the federal justice system," in a statement to The Columbus Dispatch.
Heather Turner, whose mother Donna Major was killed in a 2017 bank robbery by one of the men whose sentence was commuted, called Biden's decision a "clear gross abuse of power."
"At no point did the president consider the victims," Turner wrote in a post on Facebook.
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