【中美创新时报2024 年 12 月 23 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）拜登总统周一减刑了几乎所有联邦死囚的刑期，挽救了 37 名男子的生命，而就在一个月前，唐纳德·J·特朗普将重返椭圆形办公室，承诺重启联邦死刑。《纽约时报》记者Aishvarya Kavi对此作了下述详细报道。
受拜登行动影响的人均被判犯有谋杀罪，他们将被判处终身监禁，不得假释，而不是面临死刑。只有三名实施了臭名昭著的大规模杀戮的男子将继续留在联邦死囚牢房。
总统在 2020 年发起了废除联邦死刑的竞选活动。尽管在他执政期间，国会未能推进相关立法，但拜登指示司法部暂停执行联邦死刑。在特朗普第一任期内，有 13 名联邦死囚被处死。
拜登在周一的一份声明中表示：“我比以往任何时候都更加坚信，我们必须停止在联邦层面使用死刑。出于良心考虑，我不能袖手旁观，让新政府恢复我暂停的死刑。”
拜登表示，减刑符合他为“除恐怖主义和仇恨引发的大规模谋杀以外的案件”暂停执行死刑的标准。
“毫无疑问，我谴责这些杀人犯，为他们卑鄙行径的受害者感到悲痛，为所有遭受难以想象和无法弥补的损失的家庭感到痛心，”拜登说。
白宫发布了宗教领袖、民权组织和执法官员以及死囚朋友和家人的支持声明。
“处死杀害我警察搭档和最好朋友的人不会让我安心，”退休警察唐尼·奥利维里奥 (Donnie Oliverio) 说，他暗示拜登是天主教徒。“总统在这里做了正确的事情，也符合他和我共同的信仰。”他的搭档布莱恩·S·赫斯特在俄亥俄州哥伦布市一次银行抢劫未遂事件中被达里尔·劳伦斯开枪打死。劳伦斯先生于 2006 年被判处死刑。
在 37 名减刑的男子中，15 人是白人，15 人是黑人，6 人是拉丁裔，1 人是亚裔。他们分别在 16 个州被判刑，其中 3 个州已经废除了死刑。其中 9 人被判处死刑，因为他们被判犯有杀害同案联邦囚犯的罪行。
仍有可能面临联邦死刑的三人分别是 52 岁的罗伯特·D·鲍尔斯 (Robert D. Bowers)，他在 2018 年枪杀了匹兹堡生命之树犹太教堂的 11 名信徒；30 岁的白人至上主义者迪伦·鲁夫 (Dylann Roof)，他在 2015 年向南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿的一座教堂的黑人教区居民开枪，造成 9 人死亡；31 岁的焦哈尔·察尔纳耶夫 (Dzhokhar Tsarnaev) 是 2013 年波士顿马拉松爆炸案的两兄弟之一，该爆炸案造成 3 人死亡，十多人致残。
许多团体呼吁总统减轻死囚的刑罚，其中包括他的政党成员和几个民权组织。拜登上周还与教皇方济各通了电话，教皇本月祈祷面临死刑的联邦囚犯能得到减刑。梵蒂冈通讯社在一篇关于这一呼吁的文章中报道说，教皇“关心死囚”。美国的天主教主教也呼吁减轻死刑。
特朗普支持死刑，并在 2024 年总统竞选期间呼吁扩大死刑范围，建议将“毒贩和人口贩子”以及儿童性侵犯者处死。在他的第一个任期内，特朗普在暂停近 20 年后重启了联邦处决；所有 13 起处决都是在他执政的最后六个月内执行的。他还没有说他将如何将死刑扩大到新的联邦罪行。
拜登在最近的竞选中没有重申他结束联邦死刑的承诺。但作为总统，他指示司法部暂停执行联邦处决。联邦检察官也被告知不要寻求死刑，但拜登政府在 1 月份改变了方针，当时司法部宣布将首次在联邦案件中寻求死刑，针对 2022 年在布法罗一家超市发生的种族主义、仇恨枪击案中杀害 10 名黑人的枪手。这名男子名叫佩顿·根德隆，他已因州指控被判处终身监禁。
据死刑信息中心称，自 1973 年以来，美国至少有 200 名被判处死刑的人被免罪。通常，向总统上诉是可以挽救囚犯生命的最后行动。但总统的赦免权仅限于那些犯有联邦罪行的人，而这些人只占美国被判处死刑人数的一小部分。
总统通常会在任期即将结束时下令进行一轮赦免，而拜登面临着来自民主党的压力，要求他尽可能更广泛地使用这些权力。在周一的赦免行动之前，拜登本月对自冠状病毒大流行以来一直被关在家里的人发布了 1,500 份减刑，创下了单日减刑次数的最高纪录。拜登已经发布了全面赦免令，包括对数千名因联邦持有大麻而被定罪的人和因在军队服役期间发生同性恋而被定罪的退伍军人。这些人被赦免时都已不在监狱中。
民主党人仍在敦促拜登在最后的日子里对那些因过时的法律而被监禁的人发布更多赦免令，这些法律导致了毒品量刑的差异和黑人美国人的大规模监禁。上个月，包括亲密盟友在内的 60 多名民主党人签署了一封信，敦促他帮助数千名如果特朗普的《第一步法案》中的一些条款被追溯适用，他们的刑期将减轻。
总统还面临着帮助那些因与可卡因有关的罪行而被监禁的人的压力，如果毒品是粉状可卡因，他们将被释放。作为一名参议员，拜登参与了 1986 年实施这些量刑差异的立法。此后，他对自己的角色表示遗憾。
马萨诸塞州民主党众议员阿亚娜·S·普雷斯利 (Ayanna S. Pressley) 本月接受采访时表示，选择不采取赦免行动将给民主党带来政治风险。
“民主党不止一次试图证明我们是房间里的成年人，但美国人民并不总是认为我们是房间里的斗士，”普雷斯利女士说。“这往往是因为我们拥有权力，但不使用它。害怕的权力根本不是权力。而拜登总统拥有权力。”
本月，拜登发布了对他儿子亨特·拜登的全面无条件赦免，此前他曾多次坚称自己不会这样做，这一决定受到了总统的政治对手以及党内许多人的广泛批评。
题图：拜登总统表示，减刑符合他为“除恐怖主义和仇恨引发的大规模谋杀以外的案件”停止执行死刑的标准。图片来源：Michael A. McCoy 为《纽约时报》撰稿
附原英文报道：
Biden Commutes 37 Death Sentences Ahead of Trump’s Plan to Resume Federal Executions
Those affected by the president’s action on Monday are still subject to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Three men will remain on federal death row.
President Biden said the commutations were consistent with the standard he has imposed for halting executions “in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”Credit…Michael A. McCoy for The New York Times
By Aishvarya Kavi Dec. 23, 2024
President Biden on Monday commuted the sentences of nearly all prisoners on federal death row, sparing the lives of 37 men just a month before Donald J. Trump will return to the Oval Office with a promise to restart federal executions.
Those affected by Mr. Biden’s action, all of whom were convicted of murder, will serve life imprisonment without the possibility of parole instead of facing execution. Only three men, who each carried out notorious mass killings, will remain on federal death row.
The president campaigned in 2020 on ending the federal death penalty. Although proposed legislation to that effect failed to advance in Congress during his administration, Mr. Biden directed the Justice Department to issue a moratorium on federal executions. Thirteen prisoners on federal death row were put to death during Mr. Trump’s first term.
“I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” Mr. Biden said in a statement on Monday. “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
Mr. Biden said the commutations were consistent with the standard he has imposed for halting executions “in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”
“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,” Mr. Biden said.
The White House released statements of support from faith leaders, civil rights groups and law enforcement officials, as well as from friends and family members of those killed by men on death row.
“Putting to death the person who killed my police partner and best friend would have brought me no peace,” said Donnie Oliverio, a retired police officer, who alluded to Mr. Biden’s being Catholic. “The president has done what is right here, and what is consistent with the faith he and I share.” His partner, Bryan S. Hurst, was shot and killed while on duty by Daryl Lawrence during an attempted bank robbery in Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Lawrence was sentenced to death in 2006.
Of the 37 men whose sentences were commuted, 15 are white, 15 are Black, six are Latino and one is Asian. They were sentenced in 16 states, including three that have abolished the death penalty. Nine are on death row because they were convicted of killing fellow federal prisoners.
The three men who can still face federal execution are Robert D. Bowers, 52, who in 2018 gunned down 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh; Dylann Roof, 30, the white supremacist who in 2015 opened fire on Black parishioners at a church in Charleston, S.C., killing nine people; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 31, one of the two brothers who carried out the bombing of the Boston Marathon in 2013 that killed three and maimed more than a dozen others.
A number of groups had called on the president to commute the sentences of the men on death row, including members of his party and several civil rights organizations. Mr. Biden also had a phone call with Pope Francis last week, who prayed this month that federal inmates facing execution would have their sentences commuted. In an article about the call, the Vatican’s news agency reported that the pope had “concern for those on death row.” Catholic Bishops in the United States had also called for the death sentences to be commuted.
Mr. Trump supports the death penalty, and during his 2024 presidential campaign he called for an expansion, suggesting that “drug dealers and human traffickers” and child sex abusers should be put to death. During his first term, Mr. Trump restarted federal executions after a nearly 20-year pause; all 13 were carried out in the final six months of his administration. He has not said how he will expand the death penalty to new federal crimes.
Mr. Biden did not repeat his pledge to end the federal death penalty during his most recent campaign. But as president, he directed the Justice Department to issue a moratorium on federal executions. Federal prosecutors were also told not to seek capital punishment, but the Biden administration reversed course in January, when the Justice Department announced that it would for the first time seek the death penalty in a federal case against the gunman who in 2022 killed 10 Black people in a racist, hate-motivated shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo. The man, Payton Gendron, has already been sentenced to life in prison on state charges.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, since 1973 at least 200 people in the United States who were convicted and sentenced to death have been exonerated. Often, appealing to the president is the last action that can spare a prisoner’s life. But the president’s powers of clemency are limited to those who committed federal offenses, a small fraction of the people sentenced to death in the United States.
Presidents typically order a round of pardons toward the end of their time in office, and Mr. Biden has faced pressure from Democrats to use those powers more sweepingly while he can. Monday’s act of clemency comes after Mr. Biden this month issued 1,500 commutations for those who have been in home confinement since the coronavirus pandemic, a record number for a single day. Mr. Biden has already issued blanket pardons, including for thousands of people convicted of federal possession of marijuana and veterans convicted of engaging in gay sex while serving in the military. None of those people were still in prison when they were pardoned.
Democrats are still pushing Mr. Biden in his final days to issue more acts of forgiveness for those behind bars under outdated laws that contributed to disparities in drug sentencing and the mass incarceration of Black Americans. More than 60 Democrats, including close allies, signed a letter last month urging him to help the thousands of people whose sentences would be reduced if some of the provisions in Mr. Trump’s First Step Act were applied retroactively.
The president has also faced pressure to help those imprisoned for crimes associated with crack cocaine who would be free if the drug had been powder cocaine. As a senator, Mr. Biden worked on the 1986 legislation that imposed those sentencing disparities. He has since expressed regret for his role.
Representative Ayanna S. Pressley, Democrat of Massachusetts, said in an interview this month that choosing not to take action on clemency would pose a political risk for Democrats.
“The Democrats on more than one occasion have tried to make the case that we’re the adults in the room, but the American people don’t always think we’re the fighters in the room,” Ms. Pressley said. “And that’s often because we have the power but don’t use it. Scared power is no power at all. And President Biden has the power.”
This month, Mr. Biden issued a full and unconditional pardon of his son Hunter Biden after repeatedly insisting he would not do so, a decision that was broadly criticized by the president’s political adversaries as well as many in his party.
