Biden’s death row commutations
A president’s pardon and commutation power only extends to federal convictions and sentences. Now Biden – or the people telling him what to do – has commuted the life sentences of almost all the federal lifers, with three exceptions. The reason he gives is that he’s against the death penalty, but the ordinary and usual way to deal with such a policy change would be through statutory means.
But hey, who needs a legislature, when we’ve got a sort-of-president?
And of course, the logic of the rationale falls through because of the three-person exception. If the death penalty is wrong, why keep it for those three?
It’s not as though the 37 whose sentences were changed to life in imprisonment are sympathetic characters, either:
In the stunning act of clemency just two days before Christmas, Biden, 82, gave the reprieve to some of the nation’s most violent murderers — nine of them found too dangerous to live after butchering fellow inmates — as part of his effort at “ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” the White House said. …
The three men on federal death row did not get a commutation were Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who along with his brother killed three people in 2013; Robert Bowers, who killed 11 at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, and Dylann Roof, who killed nine black Charleston churchgoers in 2015.
Among those getting some holiday cheer is Thomas Sanders, who in 2010 kidnapped and then shot 12-year-old Lexis Roberts four times and cut her throat in Louisiana — days after the girl watched as Sanders murdered her mother on a road trip near the Grand Canyon.
Christmas also came early for Anthony Battle, who murdered an Atlanta prison guard with a hammer in 1994 while serving a life sentence for raping and murdering his wife, a US Marine, in 1987 at Camp Lejeune, NC.
Jorge Avila-Torrez, another clemency recipient, sexually assaulted and stabbed to death two girls — Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9 — who had been riding their bicycles in their neighborhood in a suburb north of Chicago in 2005.
Four years later, he strangled naval officer Amanda Snell, 20, inside her barrack in Arlington, Va.
There’s more at the link, but you get the idea.
It does not reflect well upon the Democrats, that they think these pardons are a good idea.
I haven’t really seen posts about whether the usual Democrat sources think this was a good thing to do.
Biden tried to govern like a king in “forgiving” loans that the taxpayers would have to pay for. In this, he has the power, but with the blanket pardons, the unlimited pardon of his son, and now giving people guilty of heinous murders their lives back, he puts his thumb in the eyes of all Americans who actually thought laws meant something.
Not a merry Christmas for the surviving families of people butchered by these killers.
@SCOTTtheBADGER:
Biden has forgotten God, despite his totally nominal, self-defined Catholicism, but God has not forgotten about Biden. An eternity in Hades awaits this lifelong corrupt, immoral man.
He is more evidence that Democrat voters are stupid, ignorant or evil.
In addition to the three civilian death row inmates, Biden did not (yet) commute sentences for the four men of the military’s death row in Fort Leavenworth.
These include Nidal Hasan and Hasan Ackbar, plus Timothy Hennis and Ronald Gray.
Gray has been on death row at the USDB since 1988.
So no, there is no moral consistency, just a big (and very puzzling) “F U”.
So he says he is against the death penalty but apparently not if it would be politically iffy.
Do you think Biden knows just who was pardoned, any more than the others? He just signs the paper.
SHIREHOME:
I think he knows, at least somewhat. He’s not totally out of it.
In pragmatic terms it’s hard to understand. Does anyone on either side imagine that Joe Biden is committing a deep act of conscience? Even before considering the lack of moral consistency of not commuting the most notorious murderers.
The Democrat Party is still going to suffer blowback as being the party of they/them, in this case heinous murderers.
Or is this just part of Joe Biden’s big farewell FU to everyone?
I’m sure this isn’t the end of the pardons.
huxley (5:03 pm) said: “Does anyone on either side imagine that Joe Biden is committing a deep act of conscience?”
There may be a few die-hard Truly-True Believers, hard as that is to comprehend.
“The Democrat Party is still going to suffer blowback as being the party of they/them, in this case heinous murderers.”
I fervently hope.
“Or is this just part of Joe Biden’s big farewell FU to everyone?”
Yep. Next question . . .
MJR.
Biden’s not collected enough for that. It’s the cabal of his handlers doing the big FU.
Neo: I tried to post to this and kept getting a message that it was a duplicate. I will try appending it to this message and see if it works.
A sort-of President. What an image. And how accurate!
Will we ever learn when Biden “checked out” and his staff (or Dr. Jill) took over? Will one of them publish a tell-all that brings us into the secret? It sure would be nice to know at what point in time he effectively stopped being the CEO of the government. I’m betting it was within the first two years. I’m also betting there were a lot of people in government and the media who knew it too and just played along with the fiction.
Every once in a while I find myself reflecting on the fact that Biden wanted to be President from about the time he graduated from law school, and perhaps even before that. But I have it at third hand that at his first job in a small law firm, other employees could hear him close himself in a room and make grand orations to no one — practicing, my friend was sure, for a much larger stage. He got it, and now he’s botched it and left himself a much diminished legacy.
“Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” Or strike with senile dementia, as the case might be.
I was at the auto repair place early yesterday morning in the waiting area and some of the crusty blue collar guys working there started talking about these commutations. One said, “Did you hear about these death row criminals that Biden let off the hook?” The other said, “Biden isn’t doing a damn thing! Whomever is in charge is doing this.”
I wonder if the 25th Amendment was not used because the powers “behind the curtain” were powerful enough that they could get the other Biden Cabinet members to decline to go along with the effort.
The powers behind Biden were stronger than those behind Harris. After all, she had constant turnover in staff and one would have to assume that she was not well liked in the Biden camp.
In addition the people doing all of these actions can implement them and have Biden take the heat if they are not well received.
I hope that someone (Cotton?) can get the concept of Biden being incompetent to reverse some of these decisions. Unfortunately, once someone takes an action the next guy will do twice as much damage. An example, Biden had a photo op of him signing many EOs the day he took office. Trump’s staff is already prepping to reverse Biden’s EOs as well do more actions. Unless the Congress can back up Trump with laws to formalize the EO actions, this tug of war with EOs will continue to the detriment of the country.
@Liz:I wonder if the 25th Amendment was not used because
It’s because the 25th Amendment process is extremely difficult to implement against a President who is not actually comatose or kidnapped. Which is a good thing if you think about it or they’d have done it to Trump.
Biden doesn’t have to be very compos mentis to take his Presidency back. It would take 2/3 votes of both Houses of Congress–a much higher bar than impeachment–in order to deprive Biden of the Presidency for more than three days, if he communicates in writing that he is fit to be President. He could wake up from his pudding cups long enough to do that, easily. And then where is the Cabinet left hanging after that? Fired and replaced by people who knows that if Joe’s not available just ask Jill.
Biden is a very old man and maybe has more bad days than good days lately but he’s not in a coma. He might only be up to three or fours of work per day or per week, but he’s not going to let himself be removed.
I hope that someone (Cotton?) can get the concept of Biden being incompetent to reverse some of these decisions.
There’s no one with that power; the Constitution vests the entire Executive power in the President and the pardons are not a matter for the other branches to interfere with. If Congress actually did that, the cure would be worse than the disease: 2026 midterms go the wrong way and now Trump is declared incompetent. The Supreme Court would never do it, that would be going right against the explicit text of the Constitution.
I wonder if the 25th Amendment was not used because the powers “behind the curtain” were powerful enough that they could get the other Biden Cabinet members to decline to go along with the effort.
==
There was a 17 month period in 1919-21 when the President was incapacitated. It took Congress 46 years to get round to sending a ‘remedy’ to the states. Trouble is, the scheme they designed only works if the president wishes to take a voluntary leave of absence for a short period. That was not the situation the country faced in 1919. One thing they might have done, and there are provisions for that in the 25th Amendment, was to vest the discretion to provisionally declare the president incompetent in some body other than the cabinet. The cabinet can be fired. You’d still need a 2/3 vote in Congress to prevent the President from reclaiming his powers, but at least he could not retaliate by discharging the body in question.
Every once in a while I find myself reflecting on the fact that Biden wanted to be President from about the time he graduated from law school, and perhaps even before that.
F:
Sounds right to me.
After this happy election I imagine Biden as a Twilight Zone character, tempted by the Devil and selling his soul to become President.
Then he discovers the fine print on the deal. That he will go senile, other people will run things, few will respect him and he leaves office reviled as one of the worst presidents in history.
The Devil laughs, as he takes Joe Biden’s soul to the Other Place.
Another cautionary tale … from the Twilight Zone.
[Shimmering Twilight Zone music.]
Looking at it from the bright[er] side, Joseph R. Biden has been giving hope and inspiration to a significant (and growing) sector of America’s aging population….
F; huxley:
At the age of 22 or 23, when courting his first wife, Biden told his future mother-in-law that he would become president. See this.
That’s why he had to steal it.
(Decent Joe had ONE principle: Never EVER lie to yer mother-in-law…)
– – – – – –
OTOH, THIS (from the That’s My Grandson! File) is pretty darn impressive…!
“ Photos Show Joe Biden Meeting Son Hunter’s Business Partners during China Trip”—
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/photos-show-joe-biden-meeting-son-hunters-business-partners-during-china-trip/
H/T Powerline blog
Cicero –
With due respect, pronouncements on who will or will not be eternally damned are best left to the one possessing the power to damn. Personally, in that forum I’m rooting for a liberal – even extravagant – dispensation of clemency that would extend to Joe Biden, and maybe pretty far beyond that.
Why throw out the king when every Duke gets to run their fiefdom as they see fit with massive public money?
Being kind to cruel is just being cruel to the kind.
On the 25th Amendment, I don’t think it was ever designed, despite claims that seemed to start during Trump’s first term due to the ambiguous wording, to remove a President either because of diminished capacity or via parliamentary maneuvering. It wasn’t really needed prior to the Cold War because uncertainty over the Presidental transition would not be critical until we might be faced with Presidental vacancy that could occur because of or precipitate a rapid all-out attack. The procedures clearly contemplate a President unambiguously physically unable to carry out the duties of his Office, not merely with diminished faculties or disliked by his Party.
Joe indirectly gave Obama a rare chance to appear wise by observing that one should never underestimate Joe’s ability to F’ things up! A rare Obama true insight!
Of course, had he not sought to protect himself against removal by appointing Joe VP, we would have been spared the agony of finding out just how correct he was!
but this was exactly obamas strategy, only bitter clingers, clinging to their guns and bibles, would complain, about this,
the misidenfication of Amelia Carter, was somewhat born of hope, but its unlikely she would be identified,