Who is still on federal death row after Biden commuted 37 of 40 inmates’ sentences?

Washington — President Biden on Monday announced he had commuted the sentences of nearly all federal inmates on death row, with the exception of three who did not receive clemency.

There are 37 inmates initially sentenced to death who will be impacted by Mr. Biden’s action and will now receive life in prison without the possibility of parole. But the remaining three on death row whose sentences are untouched are: Robert Bowers, convicted for the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue; Dylann Roof, convicted of the shooting at the Mother Emanuel AME Church; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for the Boston Marathon bombing.

While Mr. Biden campaigned on ending capital punishment and the Justice Department imposed a moratorium on federal executions, prosecutors still sought the death penalty in some cases.

Robert Bowers

Bowers, 51, received the death penalty in August 2023 after he was convicted of 63 federal counts for the 2018 attack at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Bowers shot and killed 11 worshipers and wounded seven people in the deadliest antisemetic attack in U.S. history.

A truck driver who had a history of making antisemitic statements online, Bowers was armed with an AR-15 rifle and three handguns when he opened fire during Saturday morning prayers. Federal prosecutors said he turned the synagogue into a “killing ground,” and police said Bowers told them “all Jews need to die.”

The Justice Department said Bowers “meticulously planned” the attack based on his antisemitic beliefs.

Dylann Roof

A jury sentenced Roof to death in 2017 for the mass shooting at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in June 2015, making him the first person ordered to be executed for a federal hate crime. Nine Black parishioners were killed and three were wounded in the attack, which took place during a Bible study.

Prosecutors said before Roof mounted the racially-motivated assault, he posted a manifesto online that used racial slurs and expressed a belief that White people are superior to African Americans. They said Roof wanted to attack Black worshipers to stoke racial tensions.

Roof was convicted of 33 counts in 2016. He appealed his conviction, with his attorneys arguing that Roof was wrongly allowed to represent himself during the sentencing phase of his trial. But a federal appeals court upheld Roof’s conviction and death sentence in 2021.

“Dylann Roof murdered African Americans at their church, during their Bible-study and worship. They had welcomed him. He slaughtered them. He did so with the express intent of terrorizing not just his immediate victims at the historically important Mother Emanuel Church, but as many similar people as would hear of the mass murder,” a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit wrote in its ruling.

The Supreme Court declined to review the 4th Circuit’s decision in 2022.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Tsarnaev was convicted on 30 counts for crimes committed during the bombings near the finish line at the Boston Marathon in 2013, including three counts of using a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death.

The jury recommended, and a federal district court imposed, the death penalty on six of 17 capital counts.

Three people were killed and scores more were injured during the attack. Tsarnaev’s role in the bombing is not disputed — his attorneys acknowledged he and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Tsarnaev’s older brother, detonated two homemade devices near the finish line of the marathon nearly a decade ago. But Tsarnaev’s lawyers said Tamerlan Tsarnaev was the mastermind behind the attack, and the younger Tsarnaev, who was 19 at the time of the attack, acted under his brother’s influence.

The two brothers attempted to flee Massachusetts following the attack, sparking a four-day manhunt that put Boston and the surrounding areas on lockdown. Tsarnaev was arrested by police after he was discovered hiding out in a boat behind a house in Watertown, Massachusetts. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a shootout with police during their pursuit of the two brothers.

After appealing his convictions, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit upheld nearly all of them in 2020, with the exception of three, and it invalidated those capital sentences and ordered a new sentencing proceeding. 

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to review the 1st Circuit’s decision, arguing a new sentencing proceeding would impose significant burdens on the victims of the 2013 bombing. The Biden administration maintained that position in the case, despite the president’s opposition to the death penalty.

The Supreme Court in March 2022 reinstated the death sentence, finding the appeals court improperly tossed out his capital sentences.