Washington – President Biden announced on Monday that he has changed the sentences Nearly all federal prisoners on death row, except three who did not receive clemency.
The 37 inmates initially sentenced to death who would be affected by Mr. Biden's action will now receive life in prison without the possibility of parole. But the three remaining on death row whose sentences remain untouched are: Robert Bowers, convicted of the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue; Dylann Roof, convicted in Mother Emanuel AME Church shootings; And dzhokhar tsarnaevBlamed for the Boston Marathon bombing.
While Mr Biden campaigned on abolishing the death penalty and the Justice Department put a stop to At federal executions, prosecutors still sought the death penalty in some cases.
robert bowers
Bowers, 51, sentenced to death After that in August 2023 convicted in 63 federal cases for the 2018 attack Tree of Life Synagogue in PittsburghBowers shot and killed 11 worshipers and wounded seven in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American history.
Bowers, a truck driver with a history of making anti-Semitic statements online, was armed with an AR-15 rifle and three handguns when he opened fire during Saturday morning prayers. Federal prosecutors said he turned the synagogue into a “killing ground” and police said Bowers told them “all the Jews need to die.”
The Justice Department said that Bowers “meticulously planned” the attack based on anti-Semitic beliefs.
dylan roof
a jury Roof sentenced to death For mass shootings in 2017 Mother Emanuel AME Church In June 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina, he became the first person ordered to be executed for a federal hate crime. Nine black parishioners were killed and three were injured in the attack during a Bible study.
Prosecutors said that before Roof carried out the racially motivated attack, he had posted a manifesto online that used racial slurs and expressed his belief that white people are superior to African Americans. He said Roof wanted to attack black worshipers to incite racial conflict.
there was a roof convicted in 33 cases In 2016. He appealed against his conviction, with his lawyers arguing that Roof was unfairly allowed to represent himself during the punishment phase of his trial. But a federal appeals court Roof's conviction upheld And death penalty in 2021.
“Dylan Roof murdered African Americans in his church during Bible study and worship. They had welcomed him. He slaughtered them. He used the historically significant Mother Emanuel Church not only to terrorize his immediate victims. did so with clear intent, rather than the same number of people who would have heard of mass murder,” a panel of judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit wrote in their decision.
supreme court Refused to review Fourth Circuit decision in 2022.
dzhokhar tsarnaev
Tsarnaev was convicted on 30 counts for crimes committed during the bombings near finish line at the boston marathon In 2013, three cases of using a weapon of mass destruction resulted in death.
The jury recommended, and a federal district court imposed, the death penalty in six of the 17 death cases.
Three people were killed and several were injured during the attack. Tsarnaev's role in bombing is not disputed – his lawyers admit He and Tamerlan TsarnaevTwo homemade explosive devices detonated near the finish line of the marathon. But Tsarnaev's lawyers said Tamerlan Tsarnaev was the mastermind behind the attack and that the younger Tsarnaev, who was 19 at the time of the attack, acted under his brother's influence.
The brothers attempted to flee Massachusetts after the attack, prompting a four-day manhunt that led to a lockdown of Boston and surrounding areas. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arrested by police after he was found hiding in a boat behind a house in Watertown, Massachusetts. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police as they pursued the brothers.
After appealing his conviction, to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit retained almost all of them In 2020, except for three, and it invalidated those death sentences and ordered a new sentencing proceeding.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to review the 1st Circuit's decision, arguing that new sentencing proceedings would impose a significant burden on victims of the 2013 bombing. Despite the President's opposition to the death penalty, the Biden administration maintained its position on the case.
Supreme Court in March 2022 reinstated the death penaltyFinding that the appeals court improperly vacated his death sentence.