Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev excluded from Biden's clemency for death row inmates
BOSTON - President Joe Biden announced Monday that he is commuting the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal inmates on death row. The list of convicted killers granted clemency by the president does not include surviving Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
In addition to Tsarnaev, Biden also chose not to spare Dylann Roof, who killed nine Black churchgoers in a 2015 racist attack in Charlestown, South Carolina, or Robert Bowers, the gunman in the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue shooting that killed 11.
Biden commuted the sentences for all others on federal death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder," Biden said in a statement.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev death sentence
More than a decade after the Boston Marathon bombings, Tsarnaev's death sentence remains up in the air. In March, a federal appeals court ordered an investigation into whether two jurors should've been disqualified for bias. The court said a new penalty-phase trial may be necessary to determine whether Tsarnaev, 31, should still be sentenced to death.
The 2013 bombings near the finish line killed three people and injured more than 200. Tsarnaev was also convicted in the killing of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier during the ensuing manhunt.
In trying to avoid a death penalty sentence, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers contended that he fell under the influence of his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed during a Watertown shootout with police.
Pressley praises Biden
Earlier this month Biden commuted about 1,500 prison sentences and pardoned 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. Rep. Ayanna Pressley was among those urging Biden to use his clemency powers before President-Elect Donald Trump takes office.
"There is no action more powerful or righteous than sparing someone's life, and today President Biden is doing just that," Pressley said in a statement. "The death penalty is a racist, flawed, and fundamentally unjust punishment that has no place in any society."
