Commute the Row - Public Calls Grow for Biden to Take Action Now

In letters released today that cite racial bias and other arbitrariness built into the federal death penalty system and its failure to improve public safety, hundreds of stakeholders from across the political and faith spectrums call on President Joe Biden to commute all federal death sentences before he leaves office. Their voices reflect the widespread, bipartisan concern about the broken federal death penalty system and a growing national shift away from capital punishment. 

Letters were submitted from the following affinity groups and organizations across a wide range of the social, political, and faith landscape:

• Faith Leaders of Color Coalition (FLOCC), more than 200 Black and indigenous faith leaders nationwide
• Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN), a national organization that mobilizes more than 30,000 Catholics from across the country
• A group of 29 retired correctional professionals, including former directors of the correctional systems in California, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington, and Wyoming as well as other retired federal and state correctional officials.
• A coalition of 134 civil rights, civil liberties, civil and human rights, faith-based, and racial justice organizations, led by the ACLU, Legal Defense Fund, Southern Poverty Law Center and Amnesty International.
• The Arc of the United States, the country’s largest organization of and for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities
• The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
• 12 Latino advocacy organizations.
• More than 100 influential business leaders, including Sir Richard Branson, the Founder of Virgin Group, Andrew Liveris, the former CEO of Dow Chemical, Paul Polman, the former CEO of Unilever, and Sheryl Sandberg, Founder of Lean In
• 166 family members of homicide victims
• 20 death row exonerees
• dozens of current and former state and federal prosecutors

Pope Francis himself, in public remarks at the Vatican on Sunday, December 8, asked for prayers for the prisoners on federal death row and appealed to President Biden to grant them clemency. During his Angelus address, the Pope said: “Let us pray that their sentences may be commuted or changed.”

If you haven't already, join the growing movement of coalitions and supporters to put an end to this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment that serves no purpose to deter crime and disproportionally targets historically disadvantaged communities.

• Add your name to the petition and add your voice to the many urging President Biden to commute the federal row.
• Access the letters calling on President Biden to commute all federal death sentences.
• Share widely on your social media networks.