President Joe Biden is facing growing pressure to grant the 40 federal prisoners on death row clemency before he leaves office next month. Doing so would spare them capital punishment.

What You Need To Know

  • Forty federal prisoners are on death row

  • There's pressure on President Joe Biden to grant clemency to the prisoners

  • Advocates are concerned President-elect Donald Trump will resume executions

While Biden campaigned on eliminating the death penalty, capital punishment remains on the books. But after he took office the Justice Department announced a moratorium on federal executions in 2021.

Advocates, legislators and even Pope Francis, who said on social media last weekend to pray for death row sentences to be commuted, are making a final push for Biden to spare those on death row. 

“We want to try and encourage President Biden to take another look,” said Democratic Rep. Alma Adams.

Adams and dozens of lawmakers have signed a letter urging Biden to grant clemency to a range of inmates, including people with unjustified sentencing disparities, as well as those on death row.

“You simply either support the death penalty or you do not. Biden apparently does not but unlike the rest of us has something he can actually do about it,” Prison Policy Initiative communications strategist Wanda Bertram said.

And there’s a sense of urgency.

Advocates are worried when President-elect Donald Trump takes office he will resume executions.

His track record could give an indication of what may come.

This election Trump ran on executions for drug dealers and some other criminals.

“We will ensure any criminal who murders a police officer receives the death penalty and a quick trial,” Trump said in May.

And in the final six months of Trump’s first term, he pushed through 13 executions. That was a significant change in policy given it had been more than 15 years since the last execution.

Repeated requests to the White House to comment on whether Biden may grant clemency specifically for death row inmates were not returned. But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recently said there will be more to come regarding clemency at the end of the term.

There is also a push for outgoing North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper to issue clemency to the 136 death row inmates in that state. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, North Carolina has the fifth highest number of prisoners on death row in the country.