Just two days before Christmas, President Joe Biden announced on Monday that he had commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row — converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump, a supporter of capital punishment, takes office. 

The move spares the lives of people convicted in killings, including the slayings of police and military officers, people on federal land and those involved in deadly bank robberies and drug deals. 

Three men on federal death row did not get a commutation: Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who along with his brother killed three people in 2013; Robert Bowers, who killed 11 at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018; and Dylann Roof, who killed nine Black Charleston churchgoers in 2015.

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As of 2021, 2,382 prisoners in the U.S. were under sentence of death, both on the state and federal levels. Of those sentenced, 98 percent are male and 40 percent Black.

The use of the death penalty, while has been gradually disappearing in the United States, remains popular among a majority of Americans despite widespread doubts about its administration, fairness and whether it deters crime.

More Americans favor than oppose the death penalty: 60% of U.S. adults favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder, including 27% who strongly favor it, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Religious groups and criminal justice organizations applauded the move.

“Clemency is a powerful tool in the fight to redress the injustices of our harsh system,” said National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers President Christopher A. Wellborn. “Looking towards the next presidential administration, it is imperative we continue to work towards a system that puts mercy before retribution. We are grateful for this announcement as an important step in the fight against the death penalty.”

Jamila Hodge, CEO of Equal Justice USA, said, “I applaud President Biden’s step today in addressing the racism that infects the death penalty and the criminal legal system as a whole. It is one flaw of many that have hollowed out the principles of justice in America and exposed the death penalty for its many failures.”

In the letter sent to the White House earlier this month, faith leaders called for an immediate end to all federal death sentences.

“It would acknowledge and help redress the racial bias built into the federal death penalty system, allow vast government resources to be redirected to policies that actually improve public safety, and allow the families of victims and incarcerated persons to focus on healing instead of living in legal limbo,” the letter said.

In another letter on behalf of more than 30,000 Catholic bishops, dioceses, state Catholic conferences and religious communities, a group called Catholics Mobilizing Network, led by Executive Director Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, invoked Pope Francis’s call on world leaders to engage in acts of mercy and bring “an end to every form of death penalty.”

“As a lifelong Catholic, you understand that every person is made in the image of God and that our Heavenly Father does not shut the door on anyone,” the letter said. “By commuting these sentences, you could use your constitutional authority to align with the clarion call during this special Jubilee 2025 year. Indeed, your commutation of the entire federal row would be a tangible expression of hope that the Holy Father has called for.”

Clemente Lisi is the executive editor of Religion Unplugged. He previously served as deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and a longtime reporter at The New York Post. Follow him on X @ClementeLisi.