This morning, the White House announced that President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 men on federal death row to life without parole. The historic move came shortly after a batch of pardons and commutations for hundreds of people convicted of nonviolent crimes, as well as Biden's pardon of his own son. In his official statement, Biden emphasized that '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.' But he said that his conscience and experience made him 'more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.' The political wisdom of Biden's lame-duck pardons and commutation jubilee is unclear. It seems likely to me that Republicans will use the details of death-row prisoners' crimes to tar Biden and the Democrats as vaguely approving of torture and murder. Biden himself seemed prepared for that eventuality in his...
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