Biden urged to commute sentences of all 49 federal death row prisoners

[mysteryowl]

Led by two prominent African American congresswomen, 35 Democrats have urged Joe Biden to commute the sentences of all 49 federal prisoners left on death row – days after the Trump administration finished its rush to kill 13 such prisoners.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/23/biden-democrats-death-row-sentences-prisoner

My position is to give the criminal an option at sentencing, life sentence or execution.

[marble falls]

1. No death penalty, no automatic life sentences without parole ...

... no inhumane treatment of asking a guilty party to decide: life or death.

[mysteryowl]

4. If I was faced with life sentence, I might find it merciful to just die.

Yet, I have never been put in such a horrible situation.

[marble falls]

7. The problem is when an innocent inmate would make that decision ...

... compounded by the unequal application of execution.

[mysteryowl]

9. Yeah, I am sure it is far more complicated than I am thinking.

[unblock]

2. No government should have the right to kill its subjects in cold blood.

I can't even support giving people the option to effectively commit suicide. Certainly not at sentencing, as that's got to be a massive emotional low point; not a good time to make a life or death decision.

But in any event, a decision like that when someone is held captive is not a free and rational decision. Moreover, it denies them a future wherein they might be exonerated, or the crimes deemed no longer crimes, or at least not subject to the death penalty, etc.

In fact, I would guess it would be the wrongly convicted who would be most likely to opt for death, and that certainly seems wrong.

[Chainfire]

3. I don't think we need to be killing people in the name of justice.

Too damn many things can go wrong. I would rather see 100 people that deserve to die serve life sentences than to be a part of killing one innocent person. It is just not worth it.

How many people have had to face the nightmare of the death penalty while knowing that they were innocent? How many is too many? The State tying someone to a bed and giving pumping poison in their veins is cruel and unusual. We should be better than that.

[mysteryowl]

5. Should President Biden commute their death sentence?

The Boston boomer is one of them.

[marble falls]

10. Yes. Even Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

[mysteryowl]

11. I heard he is in a windowless cell 23 hours a day

He is allowed one hour a day in the yard.

That is terminal torture.

[marble falls]

12. And that is another issue: how we treat inmates.

[mysteryowl]

15. Yes it is.

It is inhumane to put someone in a windowless box, alone, for 23 hours every day.
What a nightmare!

[Walleye]

14. I agree, it's a cold-blooded killing in the name of the people.

The right wing gets so bent out of shape because taxpayer money might be used for abortions. But they don’t mind taking my money and using it for a cold blooded killing that I don’t want any part of and don’t believe in.But I am an atheist so my beliefs don’t matter,I suppose, with these so-called Christians

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. Abolish the death penalty.

[frazzled]

13. Yes, but note that there were no federal executions

for 17 years, until Trump, anyway. Biden will certainly return to the no execution policy, but it would be better for Congress to enact into law a prohibition of the death penalty, if possible in this climate.

[roamer65]

8. I agree with your position.

They should be able to change their mind later on between the two as well.

[GulfCoast66]

16. I was still a Christian and a republican when I started opposing the death penalty.

It was actually the chink in my conservative armor that led me to becoming a Social Democrat and a freethinker.
My father was never happy with my becoming a republican, chalk it up to teen rebellion. But I thank him for training me to practice independent thought.

My reasoning was simple in my mind:

Christ made one statement on the death penalty when they brought the Adulteress to him to be stoned. Which was the penalty and still is in some countries. But he deferred. Did not support the law at the time and told them not to.

Money makes a difference. Poor people are much more likely to be executed.

Evidence proves we have killed lots of innocent people.

We are all safer when we all agree the government won’t kill us.


These four thoughts led me to a huge philosophical change. The first no longer affects my thinking. But the other 3 are still valid in my thinking.

[ShazzieB]

17. I'm in favor of commuting these death sentences.

I admit to being biased, though, because I'm opposed to capital punishment, in general. I didn't have a strong opinion either way until I read a book called Ultimate Punishment by Scott Turow:

https://smile.amazon.com/Ultimate-Punishment-Lawyers-Reflections-Dealing/dp/031242373X

I know the death penalty has a lot of support in the US, but I think there would be less if more people would read up on all the reasons why it does NOT work as it's intended to. It's not a question of whether some people commit crimes that are worthy of death (they do), but of whether the government should be in the business of putting people to death. (Especially when the processes of determining who is guilty and who should be put to death are arbitrary and unfair,)

In the process of reading this book, I went from being what Turow calls a "death penalty agnostic" to being firmly against it, for a lot of practical and logical reasons, as well as ethical ones. I believe the Ted Bundys of the world should be locked up for the rest of their lives, but I don't believe killing them helps anyone or society in general. I'm not here to argue about it, just to say that's where I stand and to recommend Turow's book, especially to anyone who is on the fence about capital punishment. It's well written and engrossing, and as an added plus, it's a short, quick read.

I don't mean to derail by getting up on my soapbox like this. I just have a hard time responding to any question concerning the death penalty without going into a explanation of my position on it. Peace out!

[Stinky The Clown]

18. All good. Yes, commute. Then repeal the fed death penalty.

About the criminal's option, only if assisted suicide is available to the rest of us.

[brooklynite]

19. If and only if he can swap the DP for Lifewithout parole...

Otherwise he’ll be tagged as “weak on crime” with a particularly egregious crime pointed to.