TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — President Biden has announced he’s commuting the death sentences of 37 federal inmates, 33 of whom are currently housed in the federal prison in Terre Haute according to the Bureau of Prisons Inmate Tracker. The decision leaves only three people on federal death row.
The federal prison in Terre Haute is the only federal death row in the country and the only federal prison with an execution chamber.
During President Trump’s time in office, 13 prisoners were executed in Terre Haute after an extended moratorium. It was the most federal prisoners put to death in 120 years.
In 2020, President Biden campaigned on ending the federal death penalty, but proposed legislation to do so failed to advance in congress during his administration.
Sister Barbra Batista of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary of the Woods has been a spiritual advisor to at least one prisoner executed on death row during the Trump Administration.
For many years, she has spoken out and fought against the death penalty. Now, she is reacting to President Biden’s decision.
“Our criminal justice system needs help. It needs some major over hall. I believe in criminal justice. I believe in incarcerating folks. I believe that persons that have done terrible things need adequate, if you will punishment. But not to the point of us taking their lives. For me it’s like playing God and who among us would want to be judged on the day we did the worst thing we’ve ever done” Battista said.
The three inmates who did not get clemency are the convicted murder in the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, the gunman at Mother Emanuel Church of Charleston ad the surviving Boston Marathon bomber.
