The son of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. has called on President Joe Biden to make one major move before he leaves the White House in January.
In an essay for the New York Times, Martin Luther King III urged Biden to commute all 40 federal death sentences to life sentences.
The president had already commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes in the largest-ever single-day act of clemency in the United States.
The Biden administration has also refused to carry out a single execution, but King wrote that Biden must do more in his final few weeks as president.
He said that the president ‘would move America, meaningfully, in the direction of racial reconciliation and equal justice’ if he were to commute all of 40 federal death sentences.
‘If Mr. Biden does not exercise his constitutional authority to commute the sentences of everyone on federal death row, we will surely see another spate of deeply troubling executions as we did in the first Trump administration,’ King wrote.
He went on to note that a majority of the convicts who were executed in Trump’s first administration were ‘people of color’ and ‘at least one was convicted by an all-white jury and there was evidence of racial bias in a number of cases.’
Several convicts also presented evidence of intellectual disabilities or severe mental illnesses, King wrote, noting: ‘The same problems were features in the cases of many of the 40 men on federal death row today, more than half of whom are people of color.
Martin Luther King III, the son of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr, urged Biden to commute all 40 federal death sentences to life sentences
The president had already commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes in the largest-ever single-day act of clemency in the United States
‘My father taught that the death penalty multiplies hate, violence and vengeance,’ King concluded his essay.
‘Commuting federal death sentences would be a decisive shift toward love, peace and mercy.’
Biden had said he would be taking steps in his final weeks in office to review clemency petitions, after commuting the sentences of 1,500 people who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said these people would have received shorter sentences if charged under today’s laws, policies, and practices.
Biden also granted pardons to more than two dozen people convicted of nonviolent drug possession or distribution charges.
‘As President, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses,’ Biden said.
But Republicans slammed the president for his actions, which came less than two weeks after he pardoned his own son, Hunter, who was awaiting sentencing on gun possession and income tax charges.
‘Well, whatever legacy he thought he was going to have, he trashed it,’ Texas Republican Rep. Jake Ellzey told DailyMail.com.
King III (pictured with his father, mother and sister, Bernice) wrote that his father ‘taught that the death penalty multiplies hate, violence and vengeance’
He called it ‘nonsense’ that Biden would grant the largest act of clemency ever while giving his son Hunter his own pardon on a separate day. ‘That’s up to the folks on the other side of the aisle to explain,’ he added.
Texas Republican Rep. Troy Nehls also told DailyMail.com Biden likely has many more commutations in store for close allies.
‘He’s still going to do something for maybe some of the the the J6 committee and some of these others,’ Nehls continued.
Democrats, however, were excited about Biden’s historic action.
‘I am heartened by what he did this morning,’ Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., said Thursday.
‘The president demonstrated this morning that he is focused on issues around equity. He’s focused on principle. And he showed up in a powerful way.’
Squad member Ayanna Pressley, who had pressured Biden to provide commutations for criminals, also celebrated the president’s choice.
‘Clemency changes and saves lives. And thanks to [Biden], 1,500 families will have their lives changed forever,’ she wrote on X Thursday.
