Summary

President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life without parole, sparing all but three convicted of high-profile mass killings.

Biden framed the decision as a moral stance against federal executions, citing his legal background and belief in the dignity of human life.

Donald Trump criticized the move as senseless, vowing to reinstate the death penalty.

Reactions were mixed: some victims’ families condemned Biden, while others supported his decision. Human rights groups praised it as a significant step against capital punishment.

  • Pavel Chichikov@lemm.ee
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    1 hour ago

    The delusion in this thread is hilarious.

    Also, yes we should kill inmates who commit certain crimes if they meet a certain burden of proof. The service done to society by killing off these fools far outweighs the costs incurred should a few innocent lives be taken in the process.

    • emptiestplace@lemmy.ml
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      17 minutes ago

      When one finds oneself advocating for a contentious position—particularly one with irreversible consequences—without having engaged in rigorous intellectual due diligence, it becomes imperative to pause and examine the foundations of that conviction. The casual acceptance of collateral damage in matters of state-sanctioned execution suggests an intellectual framework built more on intuition than careful ethical reasoning.

    • Pavel Chichikov@lemm.ee
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      1 hour ago

      Yes. Also, pardoning your sex-crazed drug addict son is very Catholic. As is pathological lying (claiming to lose his son in Iraq when he actually died of a glioblastoma in 2015, or claiming to have formed the QUAD when in actuality it was Trump who formed it; the list goes on). Also, sniffing a young girl’s hair on national television is very Catholic (this last one is actually semi-serious).

      Joking aside, if you think Biden is acting out of any religious sincerity, you clearly don’t understand much about politicians. They’re all carpet baggers. They’ll say whatever they have to say to get the Christian/Catholic or Jewish vote etc.

      • WammKD@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        3 hours ago

        I know it won’t make a difference to them (who’re the cafeteria Catholics, now?) but it is an official part of the catechism.

  • crossdl@leminal.space
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    8 hours ago

    I kind of wonder if Biden is setting him up to execute Luigi and get on the wrong side of this current populist movement.

  • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    His incompetence killed hundreds of thousands his first term. This time he was hoping for a more direct approach. Biden spoiled his murderous fun.

  • NeptuneOrbit@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    In theory, the death penalty makes some sense. It’s a right the government reserves for itself (violence) and I think in some contexts it makes sense to be on the table. In practice, it’s more expensive than a life sentence, and it’s a blunt and racist tool to maintain unjust social and state power.

    I wish every governor and president commuted 95% of death penalty situations. It’s a major injustice that most executions were carried out, even for those who belief it’s something the government should be doing.

    • Boiglenoight@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      I don’t get it. The death penalty doesn’t seem to deter people from committing heinous crimes. The practice seems more for the families who want closure, but morally we should be above killing unnecessarily. Whether someone is jailed for life in solitary or sentenced to death does not change the fact that they will never be able to harm another member of society.

      And don’t get me wrong, if someone kills a loved one I will want them dead, but my emotions should not drive taxpayer funded punishment.

    • Randelung@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Also, you’re very hardly ever 100% sure someone deserves to die. It’s morally much better to not kill just in case - and there’s been tons of cases where new evidence, like DNA, has exonerated convicted prisoners. You might be keeping someone fed and warm who didn’t deserve it, but personally I’d rather err on the side of humanity.

      • JamesTBagg@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        Like Gandalf said,
        “Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.”

  • uis@lemm.ee
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    15 hours ago

    I know of onlt one western country with death penalty: Belarus. And I’m pretty sure as soon as potato dictator dies, it will be abolished.

  • macattack@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    Biden: Grants clemency indiscriminately for 1,500 people indiscriminately Public: Why did you let the Cash for Kids woman free Biden: Commutes death sentences selectively Public: Who made you judge, jury and executioner?

    • Bob Robertson IX @discuss.tchncs.de
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      16 hours ago

      Biden: Grants clemency indiscriminately for 1,500 people indiscriminately Media: Why did you let the Cash for Kids woman free Biden: Commutes death sentences selectively Media: Who made you judge, jury and executioner?

      FIFY… Real people honestly wouldn’t care about any of this if the media wasn’t trying to inspire outrage.

      • macattack@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        I think it’s the opposite. The public opinion has turned on him and so everything he does is critiqued. It’s nudge on by the media but is also the cycle of celebrities du jour

  • pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    18 hours ago

    I don’t think the government should have the power to kill people as a punishment, with that said I’m also not upset that the sentences of these three weren’t commuted.

    • pyre@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      I don’t understand the reasoning. you can’t say you are anti death penalty and believe in dignity and sanctity of life or whatever but then turn around and say “except for these three motherfuckers”…

  • dx1@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    View these through the lens of each politician acting in their personal self-interest (which both of them have thoroughly demonstrated to be their only priority). What do they care one way or the other? This is political theater where they’re playing with the lives of the people in question.

    • macattack@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      Yes, I also agree that the president that commuted many death sentences is exactly the same as the president wanting to execute all of the prisoners

      • dx1@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        No, you’re right, fuck me for saying that thing that I didn’t even say. Your made-the-fuck-up interpretation of my comment disproves anything I have to say. This is a really healthy discourse we’re having and it’s not a glaring red flag that you’re so completely full of shit that you can’t even have a conversation with the person in front of you, you have to invent a fictional version of them to argue with.

        • macattack@lemmy.world
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          9 hours ago

          Can you reiterate what you were trying to say then? To me, these quotes sound reductive but perhaps there’s nuance I’m overlooking:

          each politician acting in their personal self-interest

          both of them have thoroughly demonstrated to be their only priority

          This is political theater where they’re playing with the lives of the people in question.

          • dx1@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            How are they “reductive”? They’re not purporting to be an exhaustive explanation. STOP TRYING TO INFER MEANING THAT ISN’T THERE.

  • orbular@lemmy.today
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    23 hours ago

    I can’t help but wonder if this is an assignment to “clear the wait list” for if/when Mangione gets convicted? I don’t quite understand the system but it seems many people on death row spend so many years waiting for the bureaucratic processes to complete before their lives are taken.

    • Dragonstaff@leminal.space
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      22 hours ago

      The processes that need to complete have very little to do with other death row inmates, so this doesn’t particularly make much sense.

      Death penalty cases ostensibly get the most “due process”, as you would expect, and the time is spent in appeals etc. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a barbaric system, we handle it terribly, and I’d say we routinely execute innocent people. But I can’t think of any way this clemency will help them kill Mangione much more quickly.

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    He still has one shot! No, sorry, I mean he has 3 shots remaining!

    He could do the George Carling thing… Upside down nailed to the cross and or launched from a Canon point blank on to a very thick concrete wall. And televise it.

    Its just a suggesting to make the best of things.

  • WrenFeathers@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    The irony of so many people complaining about barbaric death penalty policies while simultaneously hero-worshipping a murderer….

    I guess when you don’t like the victim, all bets are off?

    • DeadWorldWalking@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 day ago

      I have very little issues with executing death row inmates. The only reason I’m not 100% for it is because sometimes we fuck up and get the wrong person.

      But if they did a horrible crime personally I think a lifetime in a cell is worse than a quick death, so if we really want to punish them we should only do life in prison to maximize suffering.

      • frayedpickles@lemmy.cafe
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        19 hours ago

        How about we put you in a cell, and then murder you, and you can tell us which is worse.

        I’m assuming you’re religious? The more religious a person is the less they seem to value human life.

        • DeadWorldWalking@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          17 hours ago

          Eww no I’m not religious.

          99% of people in American prisons don’t need to be there. Because a humane system would focus on reforming them instead of just punishment.

          The people on death row are deemed impossible to reform.

          But since the system is based on suffering instead of reform it would make sense to make the unreformable suffer the most, which it’s debatable if that’s the death penalty or life in a cell.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    One of the three he didn’t pardon was Dylann Roof. I thought they fried his ass already, had no idea he was still alive.

    I did wonder why the three that weren’t spared were left to die… and I still kinda do.

    Also I’m kinda surprised Trump didn’t pardon Dylann Roof.

    • suburban_hillbilly@lemmy.ml
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      18 hours ago

      It’s because the entire party got justifiably shellacked in the press and court of public opinion for pardoning one of the kids for cash judges. This happened where I live and I remember the outrage over the absurdly light sentences they recieved to begin with, clemency on top was just too much for many of us to stomach.

      Some people really don’t deserve second chance or eleventh hour stay.

      • MrNobody@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        18 hours ago

        Did no such thing, simply stated who the three that didn’t get commuted were, nothing about why they didn’t get it.