Biden Commutes Death Sentence For PA Prisoner

PENNSYLVANIA — President Joe Biden on Monday spared the lives of all but three of the people awaiting execution on federal death row, including Philadelphia's Kaboni Savage. He was sentenced in 2013 for his involvement in the killings of 12 people in connection with a drug operation.

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.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Savage's drug enterprise operated primarily in the North Philadelphia area from at least late 1997 to 2010. After Savage was indicted on drug charges in 2004, he ordered the murders of the family of government witness Eugene Coleman. An associate of Savage's firebombed the Coleman family home on Savage's orders.

In addition to the six people inside the Coleman home, Savage was convicted of the following murders:

• Kenneth Lassiter, 44, of Lansdale, Pa., on March 19, 1998.

• Mansur “Shafiq” Abdullah, 22, of Philadelphia, on Sept. 6, 2000. Abdullah was shot and his body was burned.

• Carlton “Mohammed” Brown, 27, of Philadelphia, on Sept. 13, 2001.

• Barry Parker, 32, of Philadelphia, on February 26, 2003.

• Tyrone Toliver, 26, of Cherry Hill, N.J., on March 14, 2003.

• Tybius Flowers, 32, of Philadelphia, on March 1, 2004.

“Kaboni Savage and his crew murdered men, women, and children – for money, power, and, ultimately, just for revenge,” FBI Special Agent Edward Hanko said when Savage was sentenced. “They thought no more of taking lives than of taking a phone call. After more than a decade of brutality...Savage’s death sentence is justly deserved.”

Biden's action on Monday 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.