President Biden changes Philadelphia murderer, drug trafficker's sentence to life without parole
A convicted Philadelphia mass murderer and drug trafficker is off death row after President Biden announced he's reclassifying the sentences of 37 people in federal prison to life without the possibility of parole.
The White House announced Mr. Biden's decision on Monday morning, explaining the president believes America should avoid the death penalty at the federal level except in the cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.
"When President Biden came into office, his Administration imposed a moratorium on federal executions, and his actions today will prevent the next Administration from carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice. ... This historic clemency action builds on the President's record of criminal justice reform," a statement from the White House read in part.
Mr. Biden granted clemency to 37 out of 40 federal inmates facing death sentences, including the infamous convicted drug lord and mass murderer, Kaboni Savage.
In 2013, a federal jury in Philadelphia unanimously found Savage guilty of committing or directing 12 murders, including the deaths of four children, one of whom was a 15-month-old baby boy, and two adults by way of firebombing their home in 2004 in retaliation for a former gang associate.
The jury convicted Savage of 12 murders, the most in modern Philadelphia history at the time, and then sentenced him to death. This was the first death penalty in the federal district since the penalty was reinstated in 1988.
The three inmates who didn't receive clemency are the convicted murderer in the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting, the gunman at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, and the surviving Boston Marathon bomber.
