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The 49 death row inmates remaining in federal prisons should have their sentences commuted by President Biden, urged two members of the progressive “Squad” of Democrats on Friday.
The request from U.S. Representatives Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., And Cori Bush, D-Mo., Came in a letter sent to Biden that was also signed by 35 other Democrats, including representatives. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., And Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.
It was a reaction to the resumption of federal executions by the Trump administration after an almost two-decade hiatus that resulted in 13 executions in the final months of former President Donald Trump.
“We believe that rebuilding America’s dignity requires re-committing to the tradition of due process, mercy and judicial leniency in matters related to the criminal justice system,” began the Democrats’ letter to Biden. “For this reason, we urge you to immediately commute the sentences of all those sentenced to death.”
U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., Speaks in Washington, August 28, 2020 (Getty Images)
Women in Congress have said they appreciate “Biden’s fierce opposition to the death penalty and urged you to take swift and decisive action.”
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Biden’s campaign website says his administration would “work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level and encourage” states to follow suit.
Democrats claimed in the letter that President Trump left behind a legacy of “rampant bloodshed and violence” due to the number of executions in the final months of his presidency.
Then-Attorney General William Barr announced in July 2019 that the government would resume federal executions for the first time in 17 years.
In recent weeks, those executed have included Corey Johnson, a Virginia man linked to seven murders, and Lisa Montgomery, who was convicted of strangling a pregnant woman and using a kitchen knife to remove the baby from her womb. the victim.
U.S. Representative Cori Bush, D-Mo., Is seen in St. Louis, August 5, 2020 (Reuters)
Trump expressed support for reinstating the death penalty long before he became president.
“Either it will be brought back quickly or our society will rot,” Trump told Playboy magazine in 1990, according to the Associated Press.
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In order for the country to find “accountability and healing,” the Democrats wrote, Americans “first recognize the moral depravity of federal executions.”
Women in Congress argued for a justice system that seeks to “rehabilitate and restore” rather than “penalize and execute.”
“As slavery and lynching did before it, the death penalty perpetuates cycles of trauma, violence and state-sanctioned murder in black and brown communities,” they wrote.
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Pressley sent a similar letter to Biden before taking office in December, writing that “his historic election with a record voter turnout represents a national mandate to make meaningful progress in reforming our unjust and inhumane criminal justice system.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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