TRANSCRIPT
United States President Joe Biden has announced he is taking 37 people off death row to serve out life sentences behind bars instead.
The President's decision will frustrate Donald Trump who has planned to expand executions during his incoming presidency.
Unlike executive orders, clemency decisions like these cannot be reversed by a president's successor, although the death penalty can be sought more aggressively in future cases.
The move is being celebrated by congressional Democrats, opponents of capital punishment and religious communities who have all put pressure on Biden to commute these sentences before he leaves office.
An unlikely critic of the President is Reverend Sharon Richer.
She was the cousin of Tywanza Sanders and daughter of Ethel Lance who were both killed in a 2015 church massacre by Dylann Roof, one of three remaining federal criminals that Biden has left on a path set for execution.
“There is mercy for 37 others. But see, this is still unfair because if you're going to commute 37 and not 40, now you're playing judge, President Biden. And I need you to understand that when you put a kid on death row, the families are left to be hostages for the years and years of appeal that will continue to come.”
While other family members like Michael Graham, whose sister was killed by Roof, says he's grateful the killer will die for his crimes, Reverend Richer says she has conflicting emotions.
“I've got to stay away from the news today because whose face am I going to see? With every breath in my body, I don't want you to die. I don't want you to be executed, Dylann Roof. But you need to understand these tears are not for you. These tears are for everybody, these tears are for the horrendous thing you did that will not ever be forgotten.”
Trump restarted federal executions after a nearly 20-year pause during his first term in office from 2017 to 2021.
Biden, who ran for president opposing the death penalty, put federal executions on hold when he took office in January 2021.
The executive director of the group Death Penalty Action, Abraham Bonowitz, says the latest decision is welcome, but argues that Biden is giving infamous killers like Roof the ability to be seen by some as a martyr.
“We are absolutely grateful for what President Biden has done, but we urge him to finish the job. Do not give Trump the power to execute anyone. These three racists and terrorists who've been left on death row came to their crimes from political motivations. When Donald Trump gets to execute them, what will really be happening is that they will be given a global platform for their agenda of hatred. Joe Biden can prevent that.”
Earlier this month, President Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 more convicted of nonviolent crimes.
He also issued a full and unconditional pardon of his son Hunter, after repeatedly insisting he would not do so.
Hunter Biden had pleaded guilty to tax violations and was convicted on firearms-related charges.
And elsewhere in the U-S, an explosive new report from the bipartisan United States House Ethics Committee has targeted a close ally of Donald Trump.
After a lengthy investigation, the panel found that former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz paid $144,000 [[AUD]] to women for drugs and sex during his time in office, including sex with a 17-year-old girl.
Mr Gaetz, who has denied wrongdoing, resigned from the House of Representatives last month after he was selected by President-elect Donald Trump to be attorney general.
He later withdrew from consideration in the face of intense scrutiny surrounding the rumours.
Peter Loge, director of George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs, says the report was a long time coming.
“I think it's good news that the committee finally released the report. It might reassure some voters that even the politically connected and powerful could be held accountable for their actions. The report is as appalling as it is unsurprising. These are allegations that have been swirling around Matt Gaetz for many, many years, and now we have confirmation and, you know, the public will do what it will if he decides to run for Senate in Florida, as he’s threatened to do. I expect this report will play a role in his campaign.”
The report alleges that Mr Gaetz violated House Rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use and other matters.
The ardent Trump-ally had earlier filed a lawsuit to block the report's release, arguing the Ethics panel no longer had jurisdiction since he has now resigned from the House.
Mr Loge, who also served as an advisor to the Democrats during the Obama administration, says he's not convinced the report will have any negative impact on Trump.
“I don't think this will have any impact whatsoever on President-elect Trump. President-elect Trump has a long history of well-documented sexual, unwanted sexual advances, predatory sexual behavior, all sorts of really terrible things, done a lot of them in public, and voters said that, ‘That's fine. We’ll trust him with the keys to the car for another four years.’”
