‘Squad’ Dem applauds Biden for sparing killers from ‘racial’ death row in 11th hour move

A leading progressive House Democrat is praising President Biden’s order to commute people on death row, calling the death penalty itself “racist.”

“The President’s decision to commute the death sentences of 37 people on death row is a historic act of compassion that will save lives, address deep racial divides in our criminal justice system, and send a powerful message about redemption, dignity, and humanity,” said Representative Ayanna Pressley, D. -Mass., in a statement Monday.

“The death penalty is a discriminatory, flawed, and unjust punishment that has no place in any society.”

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Pressley said the death penalty has targeted black and brown communities “and failed to make America safer.”

The Massachusetts lawmaker, a member of a left-wing group of House Democrats called “The Squad,” has been at the forefront of the ongoing campaign to end the death penalty.

Biden’s clemency order affects almost everyone on the government’s death row in the United States.

Three of the 40 prisoners remain – Dylann Roof, who killed nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina in 2015; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings; and Robert Bowers, who killed 11 worshipers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018.

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Democrats have mounted pressure on Biden to act after his son Hunter was pardoned. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Among those sentenced to life in prison are Thomas Sanders, who kidnapped and killed a 12-year-old girl; Jorge Avila-Torrez, who sexually assaulted and stabbed to death two young girls and strangled a 20-year-old female Naval officer four years later; and Anthony Battle, who killed an Atlanta prison guard with a hammer 30 years ago.

Democrats have been pressing Biden to use his clemency powers after the controversial and broad pardon he granted his son, Hunter Biden, weeks before he was sentenced on gun charges.

Biden heeded that pressure earlier this month when he commuted the sentences of about 1,500 Americans in the largest single-day program.

This comes as President-elect Trump has proposed months of plans to extend the death penalty for drug traffickers, child rapists and illegal immigrants who kill American citizens.

At the end of his first term, Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) carried out the first federal execution in 20 years, issuing sentences for 13 inmates on death row.

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Sen. Tom Cotton criticized Biden’s decision. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

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Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a senior Trump ally, criticized Biden for his order on Monday.

“Once again, Democrats are siding with depraved criminals over their victims, public order and decency,” Cotton wrote in X.

“Democrats can’t even defend Biden’s terrible decision as against the death penalty since he didn’t drop three of the most politically toxic charges.