Writes Russ Feingold (at The Hill).
With this courageous action, President Biden has lived up to his promise as the first president to openly oppose capital punishment and secured his legacy as a champion of racial justice, compassion, and fairness.
If he's truly opposed to capital punishment, he should have commuted the sentences of all 40 federal death row inmates. That would have taken more courage. The 3 excluded from this show of empathy were the 3 most famous. Applying principle to them would have kicked up a much bigger political storm. So where is the principle?
President Biden has shown clear moral leadership by commuting these 37 federal death sentences. Not only does this action effectively fulfill his 2020 promise to end the death penalty at the federal level, it should also serve as a model and an incentive for state leaders to follow suit.
No. The "37" says it all. You need to save all 40 before you can claim "clear moral leadership." The real test would be sparing those last 3: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Robert Bowers, and Dylann Roof.
That would be difficult. That would take courage.
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Awww, look at li’l Russ trying to stay relevant. How cute.
Biden is OK with executions, depending on who is getting murdered.
He is going straight to Hell. And that right soon.
I dare the moral-less moral degenerate criminal-huggers - Biden and his mob controllers -- to pardon Dylan Roof.
Courageous would have been doing it Jan 2021. This was just a true believer staff person doing what they wanted.
One might make the argument that the Tree of Life massacre killed too many people to be forgiven easily. Fair enough. But why then is Biden granting clemency to Kaboni Savage, who would be considered a bit overtly named in an Ayn Rand novel?
The takeaway could be that killing a dozen Americans is just fine, but killing a dozen Jews deserves death for some reason.
I wonder who has standing to challenge the pardons and clemency on the basis of Biden being mentally incompetent?
Seems like Biden is anchoring his pardon and clemency outrages in both number, severity and perversity to obscure his ultimate self-interested tranche of pre-emptive blanket pardons of select henchmen for everything but yet nothing specific.
I have a hard time believing whoever made this decision spent more than 10 minutes on it. It’s that bad.
In his entire political career, Joe Biden has never been accused of selfless acts, nor do his handlers deserve credit for it in this instance.
Biden is pro choice.
Either capital punishment is morally wrong or it is morally permissible.
Thank you. If you oppose the death penalty, you have to oppose it across the board.
I thought Biden did it because Trump said something, and the pardons would serve to scuttle whatever Trump might do, or something. I'm not sure about the veracity of the source of that info. That's why I'm not linking to it.
Biden et al follow the principle of political congruence, convenience.
Capital punishment is wrong but Capitol punishment is celebrated. Throw another baby on the barbie, it's over.
That would make his 10% harder to argue against.
It's not how many they killed it's what identity group the victim is from and how they voted in the last election.
A FOIA request should clear it up.
AND.. is it morally permissible, for those that did something TRULY HIDEOUS?
Like being an unwanted baby?
are Mass Murderers more deserving of clemency, than a woman's unwanted baby is?
Trump can order each of these people executed as clear and present dangers to the national security of the United States.
All he has to do is declare it. There is no appeal. And there is no approval from Congress or courts required. Obama set this precedent during his administration.
Trump should do that and have all 39 of these people executed on the same day.
He didn't "end" the federal death penalty, it remains a viable sentence. He just waived it fir 37 people who he almost certainly knew nothing about in terms of crimes committed and how they have lived their lives since.
Death penalty has always been a dichotomy of a civilized society. But if you are against it, you are against it: there are no exceptions. Clearly, the death penalty here is being used for political purposes; this regime has no consideration for human life.
Biden changed no federal laws wrt capital punishment. All we’ve learned from this is don’t delay the punishment.
I don't understand how this is "leadership". Who is he leading? He can't even make the case for the decision publicly. This is just Führership.
It was Barack Obama. Barack Obama made this, and all other decisions, for the last 4 years. Illegally.
One argument against "life w/o parole" is there is no strong punishment available for killing in prison. One of the 37 did just that. No harm, no foul? Ask the family of the guard.
Publish the names of all of the people Biden’s 37 new friends raped and murdered. Everytime a democrat opens their mouth Saytheirnames.
This isn't a subject I generally have reason to think about (thank goodness), but ISTM that some people's objection is not that capital punishment is in itself morally impermissible but rather that sometimes innocent people are killed by the power of the state - basically that even a "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard isn't high enough to ensure a perfect application of this most severe penalty. So, reforming the standard (for instance, only allowing the death penalty when the person is definitively of sound mind and confesses to the crime, including details not known to the public, or is witnessed in the commission of the crime by many reliable people and/or secure video - something like that) when a sentence of death is sought might be morally permissible to those objectors.
Luigi Mangione wants a pardon also.
There have been 2.7 million children aborted during the Biden presidency.
Not only is he going to Hell, he's going to burn the entire way down there.
Biden leans in and falls over. American Civil Liberties Unburdened
The argument against capital punishment is prosecutorial indiscretion.
The argument against Capitol punishment is probable cause and due process.
The argument against reproductive rites is homicide laws and the Loving decision.
What are the chances the remaining three will ever be executed? I expect they are remote.
Moral leadership from Joe Biden? Russ is joking, right?
And you cannot both oppose the death penalty and also be pro abortion.
Baltasar Gracian, S.J. has a maxim along the lines of: Don't do something at the end that you wouldn't do at the beginning. Of course, Joe Biden has never heard of Gracian. I, however, delivered "The Art of Worldly Wisdom" to Vivek and I'm sure he's read it. Same for J.D. Vance but not so sure he got the book.
Feingold's defense of Biden's failure to include the 3 is between the lines, implied by his repeated reference to racism in applying the death penalty. None of the 3 are Black.
Seriously? Biden Administration has endorsed, enabled, and emboldened reckless lawlessness and violent acts of criminality.
Feingold needs to readjust his reading glasses; he's way off mark. Or he's just another progressive-marxist "tearing down the house" mouthpiece.
Yep. The left is only for getting rid of the Death Penalty for people they like. When its people they hate, suddenly their "moral courage" and "principle" goes out the window. Has anyone asked Feingold about the Genocide in gaza? He's certainly not opposed that.
When did Creepy Joe ever oppose the death penalty? That's a lie. Feingold is just another libtard Party member who will spew any shit out of his rotten cocksucker if he thinks it helps his co-conspirators and fellow scumbags.
Biden has an essential core of phoniness. Stupid, empty, and vicious.
37! In a row?
" Democrats Block Tom Cotton Resolution To Condemn Biden’s Commutation for ‘Kids for Cash’ Judge: Sen. Dick Durbin says Biden clemency recipients, which include a triple murderer, ‘demonstrated a commitment to rehabilitation.’"
The head of my old law firm used to say, if you want us with you on the landing, you want us with you on the takeoff.
The 4 death row inmates convicted in military trials, including Hasan, were also not part of Biden’s clemency.
The 3 non-commutations prevent any nice clean explanation from either side. It makes me wonder if this just just another Biden “FU” to the Democratic Party on his way out the door.
Dick Durbin wouldn't recognize a moral act if it came up and introduced itself to him. He is a hack's hack, an uberhack.
The more I’m reading about some of the ones Biden spared, the more I think 37 was too many.
They have no interest in abiding to a principle. If this is Feingold’s morality, then I shall not put trust in him.
I read Biden granted clemency and pardoned almost 8000 people. Don't know if that's right. OK, I finally found the number, it took a while since Google, Snopes, and Yahoo all want to distort and argue, and hide the true number to protect Biden.
The 8000 number includes 6500 for MJ use in a blanket pardon. Plus the 1500 he's done in Dec 2024. BTW, a majority of the Federal death row inmates were there for killing people while in Prison, or killed witnesses that were going to testify against them.
Agree. Typical half assed deceptive crap trying to claim moral superiority.
What's the punishment for a man who murders while in prison for life, or for 20 years? You tell me.
"Moral leadership." You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
A friend of mine, now deceased, was a Circuit Court judge, and a conservative. She thought that people did things for which enforcement of the death penalty was just, but that the procedural morass triggered by the death sentence created costs wildly disproportionate to the benefits. She might have approved of the 37 commutations on the theory that we retain the concept of general deterrence by execution of the famously evil.
I guess killing Democrat constituencies deserves the death penalty. Everyone else doesn't rate.
Dixcus, you are SO full of shit. I'm not going to go through the details again, but you are just DEAD WRONG saying that the POTUS can simply declare a person a "clear and present danger." Obama sought the go-ahead to kill al-walaki from the DOJ before proceeding. You are simply showing what a dull tool you are by claiming "all the president has to do is declare it."
What does "The 8000 number includes 6500 for MJ use in a blanket pardon" mean? Source?
Has anyone asked Feingold about the Genocide in gaza?
Hamas, right? With sympathetic advocacy. First, they came for the Jews, then Fatah Palestinians, then raised the Gaza women and child human shields to protect their terrorist progress. Funded by Obama, Biden, United Nations et al by way of an Iranian regime that canceled Iranian people a la NATO-backed Kiev regimes in the Slavic Spring with benefits.
Not to mention escaping and murdering outside of prison, which at least one of them did.
Look, Leftwingers are smarter than Rightwingers and Centrists. They know that claiming the "Moral Highground" works. So, Feingold says its "moral leadership" when Biden does what he does. When do conservatives ever say that? Almost never. They dont even attack the leftwing position as immoral or amoral. They just grumble or snark when the Left does it. Its reason 4,563 why they lose.
I don't think these commutations have anything to do with Biden's supposed moral objection to the death penalty. Instead, I think he's doing as much crazy shit as he can right now so that when he eventually pardons the rest of his family, his business associates, and supporters like Fauci and Mayorkas, the left will excuse all of it as a product of his cognitive decline (to which they'll say no shame should attach) rather than to his bottomless corruption.
Not only does this action effectively fulfill his 2020 promise to end the death penalty at the federal level
Unless he discovered some way to unilaterally change federal law he did no such thing. Not even ‘effectively’….and these dooshbags walk around thinking they are our intellectual betters. Go sit on the bench with Liz Warren that thinks GE doesn’t pay taxes…
these a holes have lost all the legitimate arguments and now have only patriotism and morally right to fall back on..
"Senate Democrats blocked Sen. Tom Cotton's (R., Ark.) resolution Thursday to condemn President Joe Biden’s decision to grant clemency to a former Pennsylvania judge who sent juveniles to prison in exchange for millions of dollars of kickbacks."
Not even judge Juan Merchan could try Luigi fast enough to make the Jan 20 deadline. Unless the person or persons that kicked Biden off the ticket and installed Kamala get involved. Go directly to prison on a summary conviction do not collect $200 dollars.
Yah there’s fishy stuff with that number. Wikipedia has it too, without explanation. I’ve always assumed they will figure out a way to pardon the criminal activity of all Democrat and Democrat allies without disclosing the pardons in the usual way. Perhaps this number is bunk, but there’s Democrat allies calling it bunk which more likely than not makes it true…
Life without parole pretty much obviates the need for rehabilitation. Beyond that, every prosecutor is aware of the thousands, perhaps millions, of innocent victims sacrificed on the Democrat altar of rehabilitation.
Good point. In fact, it's another example of the dems' abandonment of constitutional norms that they would embrace the use of presidential pardons and commutations as an instrument of policy. Those powers are supposed to be used sparingly, based on the particular facts of a case, not to prevent the enforcement of criminal statutes across an entire category of defendants.
Unfortunately this is a situation where engaging in this issue (even as a mental exercise) is wrestling with a pig. When finished, the pig won’t be any cleaner, and you’ll be much dirtier.
So, an old man who can't be brought to trial because he is incompetent, can grant clemency to murderers and rapists, and we have to TAKE IT?? We all KNOW Hussein Obama is behind this.
Those last three didn't have their 10% to give to 'Big Daddy'... so sorry folks, a man has gotta eat in retirement.
Seriously though folks.. Biden didn't make this decision. Either Obama or Soros did.
Bingo.
And what I'm waiting for is the Trump Admin suing to reverse every single pardon and commutation on the grounds that they weren't in fact done by the President, since he wasn't mentally competent to do it
From the Daily Mail
Biden said in his statement that his action is consistent with the administration's pause on federal executions in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.
It means just three federal inmates are still facing execution, including the Boston Marathon bomber and the hate crimes killers who slaughtered people in the 2015 Charleston church shooting and 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
For what it's worth.
There is no principle just a bronx cheer at the victims
Democrat moral hopscotch. Unwanted unborn babies get the forceps, baby killers on death row get a commutation.
Unprecedented! We've had enough of that.
I would be in favor of an Ex-President's impeachment - maybe not a high crime but definitely a terrible misdemeanor.
So hate-motivated individually targeted murders are OK?
The exception of those so-called "final three" is the evidence that everything Biden said in his preamble is just b*******. It's actually his final up raised middle finger to the people that defeated him are getting as he's going out the door.
Real political courage would have been campaigning on the issue and doing it at the beginning of his term. Instead of allowing his ideology-blinded associates to stick this in the face of America as they head out the door.
@effinayright, he got that from a Tom Clancy novel.
I believe that there is no SOL for murder in most states. Since we learned in the Rodney King thing that there is also no such thing as a SOL for federal civil rights charges after a state acquittal, cannot the states involved charge, try, convict and execute these criminals?
I have tossed around in my mind the idea that if a state seeks the death penalty, the defendant automatically gets a second trial if convicted. Death penalty opponents could focus their resources and talent on defending those (hopefully few) significant cases. There ought to be few if any appealable issues after the second trial. The problems of prosecutorial misconduct and incompetency of counsel get addressed by the quality of counsel and judges. Only the truly guilty (in theory--I can't say that political mobocracy won't convict the innocent) get the death penalty.
I'm sure there are lots of practical and constitutional reasons why this either won't work or won't happen.
Merry Christmas ⛄🎁⛄
Lost in all this discussion is the following — suppose Biden did precisely the opposite and demanded that the executions be expedited. Would not Russ Feingold have written a “Biden did the right thing” article in that case, too? For Democrats first comes party, and second comes their fair share of the graft and corruption. Principles are next to last, one largish step ahead of genuine concern for the hardworking people of the United States.
Also--why are those three "exceptions" still alive? (Rhetorical question).
I do oppose the death penalty in practice (not in principle), because all justice systems are imperfect, and some miscarriages, when revealed, show state perversity and malice. Also why I believe all prisoners need treating decently.
But life should mean life.
PS I oppose abortion, as well, and assisted suicide.
In a way, it's right — leaving three individuals’ sentences intact means Biden's not arguing that the death penalty itself is immoral, he's just quibbling about where the line should be drawn.
Joey has no idea he did it.
The second best manager I ever had was a Frenchman who, in a meeting of high officials for our company, had the temerity to say (in an impeccably thick Frahnch accent), "You cain due zait. You 'ave zhe autority. But, you will be, how you say, hwrong." Stopped a major catastrophe in its tracks.
Biden just needs a guy like that around him in these closing days.
The "You shall not pass" LOTR scene is playing out and Biden lashes out on his way down... So far, Biden is not taking Trump down with him... so far.
Joe Biden is not, never was, nor ever will be courageous. He is the worst of career politicians: corrupt, cranky, creepy and now quasi senescent.
The hostess nails it again. Bravo!
With this courageous action, President Biden has lived up to his promise that 'nobody is above the law' and refused to pardon Hunter- err... waitaminute, that's a different promise. Never mind.
One thing is for sure, though- he has secured his legacy.
My understanding was that to be in death row in a federal penitentiary you had to be the worse of the worst. The summary implies that no consideration was given to these inmates show of remorse, if any. The only consideration appears to be whether or not they were notorious enough.
That's not clemency. What we have here is something else. This needs to be examined.
The more I think about the implication of this... thoughtlessness, the irritated I'm getting. We are supposed to in a joyous occasion and Biden is... Fuck Joe Biden.
The disingenuous (and statistically false) suggestion that Black men were unfairly convicted by juries in these cases exposes the sheer hypocrisy of both Biden and Feingold. If they really believe that, Biden should've granted a complete pardon of the Black death row convicts.
The "courage" of pandering to your far left base, isn't all that courageous. Yet another example of Biden's handlers ticking off their wish list just like everything else these past four years.
I think Biden did make this decision,
He's playing God - you live, you die.
And he's enjoying it.
Russ Feingold!? There's a name I haven't heard in a while. I thought he was ....
No, that was Paul Wellstone.
Of course, Biden's pardons were a stupid stunt, but how many of these guys would still be alive in 20 years and carrying out endless appeals and petitions for a stay of execution?
Also, it sort of sends a message that if something horrible happens to you and it's not a hate crime or terrorism, then you're on your own (and even if it's terrorism you're still probably on your own).
Remember when The Hill fired Jon Solomon because he was doing actual reporting on Biden's Ukraine corruption? They never showed that anything he said was false, they just fired him.
Planned Parenthood... Perphood would have been the ethical Choice with ethical methods to carry out Capitol... capital punishment for those convicted of Living... murder.
Alternatively, there is another alleged "power behind the throne" who once said about his own presidency something to the effect that he was really good at killing people.
That was in 2020. Now we are in Fangorn Forest meeting Trump the White.
I am against the death penalty. But it is a head scratcher why Biden didn’t commute the sentence of these three if he is also against the death penalty. Seems like not all animals are equal after all.
A good society would have no capital punishment, no euthanasia, few guns, and few abortions. Value human life from conception to natural death.
They're still convicted of the crimes and in jail. They've only had their death sentence commuted, not pardoned.
Merry Christmas.
We had a "good society" once. And then Cain acted out. Hasn't been the same since.
This tells me that states should resist allowing the Feds to prosecute anyone. They will just get the death sentence commuted if another monster of a democrat is elected.
Commuted sentence to murder another day.
He is the President. He has the power to commute death sentences. If you didn't want him to do it, you should have been keeping the election from being rigged in 2020. The only election that counts, the Electoral College, he won. And he should have commuted all the death sentences to life without parole if those are his beliefs. I happen to agree with him on this one. I do not trust the government and especially the court system to have the power of life and death over people. Do some people deserve to die? Certainly. But how many innocents are you willing to see die at the hands of an incompetent government in order to punish the guilty with death instead of life without parole?
None of the death sentances commuted by Biden fit that sceranio.
Courage? Let that word rot in his well-renumated mouth.
Excellent point.
Not soon enough.
Yep.
Jamie, despite well-funded propaganda, we have not killed one innocent person. Read harder.
Also bingo.
Jamie, you’re an idiot.
Boatbuilder, that already happens two to a dozen times.
His only regret is that he won't be around to commute the sentences of the murderers of US citizens he is responsible for importing into the country.
Lwop is a life sentence for the survivors.
Depending on skin color, moron.
Kill fifty white women, that isn’t counted as hate, you idiot.
The vast majority people of you here don’t understand the first thing about how these laws are, selectively, enforced,
If you know nothing, how about just shutting up?
Chang your mind since your defense of his choice this morning, Ann, or prefer to hope nobody noticed the gross discrepancy? And it is grotesque.
I thought Dylann Roof expressly wanted execution. Am I mistaken? Or, did he change his mind?
What's more empathetic, Planned Prisonerhood (i.e. abortion/Capitol punishment) or a lifetime sequestered (i.e. canceled)?
Will Biden offer clemency to the murdered as well as the murderers?
To the aborted for the criminal act of posing a "burden" to social, clinical, criminal, political, and climate progress?
To the collateral damage from immigration reform?
Jamie, you’re an idiot.
Originally I responded to this too defensively. I'll just say thanks, and merry whatever you celebrate, if anything.
Yes, along with mass murders of the non-hate variety.
Murder is a state level crime. Biden can only pardon for Federal offenses. I doubt Mangione is going to be charged with a federal crime.
Which means Feingold's claim that Biden, or anybody, is doing this because he opposes the death penalty is wrong. It provides no justification for why he selected to commute (or not commute) specific sentences. Like the overused metaphor says, we know what Biden is because he's quibbling over the price.
I’m celebrating being alive after surviving a sadistic serial killer whose later speciality was torturing elderly women. Fist-raped an elderly woman into an early grave. Not your mom, I hope. She hid it from her kids to spare them in the last few weeks.
And God bless the police who saved me. And Christ’s birth.
And survivors of murdered loved ones who spend the rest of their lives in courtrooms tortured by reliving their loved-ones’ murders and then counting the hours between excruciating appeals. People of your lack of knowledge of sentencing and lack of morals have destroyed both the death penalty and LWP, for almost all killers. Life without parole, or appeal, we could live with. Because of your excesses, you have convicted victims’ families to lifetimes of torture. Not to go all Nancy Grace on you (whose fiancée was brutally murdered), but after killing unknown numbers of women (souvenirs were found), my rapist could walk any day because the ACLU got his last life sentence overturned on a technicality.
He almost walked during COVID. How do I know? Because every week for the rest of my life I have to make sure he is still incarcerated. I’ve done it for decades already.
My Church (Catholic) is not as liturgically opposed to the death penalty as you apparently ignorantly assume.
But if that rapist and murderer of women ever gets sprung, I have no qualms about facing the death penalty myself, or life without parole, for what he has done to others. I saw several of the crime scene photos. I will have no final meal the media can pimp, and I will have no regrets. And Sister Helen Prejean and every defense attorney need to keep their distance.
Steve Sadow is the only exception.
But I bet I’ll sway the jury. I’m pretty fucking articulate and aced law school before having to drop out. So I just wrote the laws after that, and stopped bad ones.
Feliz Navidad, rapist-fetishist.
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