2 GA Prisoners Among 37 Biden Spares From Federal Death Row

GEORGIA — President Joe Biden on Monday spared the lives of all but three of the people awaiting execution on federal death row, including two men convicted of the murders of a prison guard and a postal worker in Georgia.

Biden’s action commutes their sentences to life imprisonment just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office.

Those whose lives were spared were convicted of killings that included slayings of police and military officers, people on federal land and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, as well as killings of guards and prisoners in federal facilities.

The Georgia convicts who had their sentences commuted are:

• Anthony George Battle: Sentenced in 1997 for the killing of a prison guard. On Dec. 21, 1994, Battle — a former Marine previously convicted of killing his wife at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina — was incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary-Atlanta when he fatally struck a prison guard, D’Antonio Washington, with a hammer, Atlanta First News reported. 11 Alive reported Battle was found near correctional officer D’Antonio Washington’s body and admitted to the killing, saying he felt "bossed around" and believed the act would gain him respect in prison.
• Meier Jason Brown: Sentenced in 2003 for the fatal stabbing of a postal worker. Brown was found guilty of killing a postal worker during a Nov. 30, 2002, robbery attempt in Liberty County on the Georgia coast, Atlanta First News said. Brown confessed to killing Sallie Gaglia after picking up mail at the Fleming, Georgia, post office. He later admitted he returned home and then went back to the post office, where he asked for three money orders. When Gaglia turned to use an adding machine, Brown jumped over the counter and fatally attacked her with a knife.

It means just three federal inmates are still facing execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.

“I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement. “Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”

The Biden administration in 2021 announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment to study the protocols used, which suspended executions during Biden's term. But Biden actually had promised to go further on the issue in the past, pledging to end federal executions without the caveats for terrorism and hate-motivated, mass killings.

“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,” Biden's statement said. “But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice president, and now president, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”

He took a political jab at Trump, saying, “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has spoken frequently of expanding executions. In a speech announcing his 2024 campaign, Trump called for those “caught selling drugs to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts.” He later promised to execute drug and human smugglers and even praised China's harsher treatment of drug peddlers. During his first term as president, Trump also advocated for the death penalty for drug dealers.

There were 13 federal executions during Trump's first term, more than under any president in modern history.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.