WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 18: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at an event marking the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in the East Room at the White House on June 18, 2024 in Washington, DC. Biden announced a new program that will provide protections for undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens, allowing them to obtain work authorization and streamline their path to citizenship. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Monday morning President Joe Biden announced the commutation of all but three men on federal death row, including an Ohio man convicted of killing a Columbus police officer in 2005. The president’s actions struck a chord in the state; police union officials were quick to criticize the decision, but others praised Biden’s sweeping use of clemency in the waning days of his administration.
In a press release, Biden said his actions were guided by his conscience and his experience as a public defender and elected official. Although as a U.S. Senator Biden was the driving force behind “tough on crime” legislation that helped fuel mass incarceration, as president, he imposed a moratorium on executions in 2021.
“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden said.
But he added he’s more convinced than ever that executions at the federal level should stop.
“In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted,” he said.
Commutations in context
Biden’s commutations mean 37 people previously on death row will now face life in prison without the possibility of parole. The president did not change the sentences of the men convicted in the Boston Marathon bombing, or shootings at the Tree Life Synagogue and Emanuel AME Church.
Robin Maher who heads up the Death Penalty Information Center noted “No U.S. president since Lincoln has used his clemency power on behalf of a group of death-sentenced people.”
The organization tracks capital punishment but doesn’t take a position on the death penalty itself. The DPIC is critical, however, of problems in the punishment’s application. In an annual report released earlier this month, the group highlighted three death row exonerations in 2024, as well as shifting attitudes and understanding of how vulnerabilities like youth, trauma and mental illness play into offenses.
Maher emphasized that although Biden’s clemency is historic, the offenders still face significant sentences.
“The 37 men whose sentences were commuted will still face harsh punishment by spending the rest of their lives in federal prison,” she said, “but they will not face certain execution under the next administration.”
Ohio reactions
The most forceful reaction came from the Fraternal Order of Police which condemned the move and cast the reprieve as a disgrace to the memory of Officer Bryan Hurst. In January of 2005, Hurst was working in uniform at a bank in downtown Columbus when Daryl Lawrence attempted to rob it. In an exchange of gunfire shot Hurst in the chest. Hurst was awarded the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor the following year.
“The decision to commute the sentence of Daryl Lawrence is an inexcusable affront to the memory of Officer Bryan Hurst and the law enforcement community as a whole,” FOP Capital City Lodge #9 President Brian Steel said in a statement. “Bryan made the ultimate sacrifice, and this decision undermines the justice that was rightfully served for his murder.”
“Our message to the public and to policymakers is clear,” he added, “the lives of police officers matter, and those who take them must face the full measure of justice.”
But others, focused on the death penalty system as a whole, took a different view. Gary Mohr, who spent 47 years in the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections and led the agency from 2010-2018, signed on to a letter in June with 28 other former corrections officials urging President Biden to commute every federal death sentence. Another former ODRC director, Richard Seiter, signed on to the letter, too.
The officials argued executions take a toll on those tasked with carrying out the sentence, and described how executions lead to “depression, suicide, substance abuse, (and) domestic turmoil,” that affects corrections officers and their families.
“During the final months of the Trump Administration, we watched in horror as 13 executions were carried out in rapid succession, many just days or even hours apart,” they wrote, and warned without clemency a future administration might do the same.
Following Monday’s announcement, Mohr said “I am so grateful to President Biden for taking this step to ensure no federal correctional professionals will face the harm of participating in executions for the foreseeable future. It’s difficult to overstate just how much the execution process impacts everyone involved.”
Ohioans to Stop Executions executive director Kevin Werner noted the corrections officials weren’t alone. In a concerted push, several faith leaders, advocacy organizations, business leaders, prosecutors and families of murder victims urged the president to commute death sentences. Werner noted Ohioans were well represented among those groups including former U.S. Attorney Carter Stewart, more than a dozen pastors, ten family members of homicide victims and Derrick Jamison who was exonerated in 2005 after spending 20 years on death row.
“This was a moment for history and one President Biden met with compassion and mercy,” Werner said. “Leaders in Ohio from both political parties are walking away from capital punishment. Today President Biden used the moral authority of the office to lead by commuting these sentences.”
Follow OCJ Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.
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