The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. December 11, 2024 Abolitionists Call on Biden to Commute Death Sentences of Federal Prisoners --------------------------------------------------------------------------- House progressives have called on President Joe Biden to commute the death sentences of the 40 federal prisoners on death row and to resentence them to a prison term. On Tuesday, Congressmembers Ayanna Pressley, Cori Bush and Adriano Espaillat were joined by death penalty abolitionists on Capitol Hill, where they called on Biden to act before Trump takes office 40 days from now. Congressmember Pressley noted that during his first term, President Trump went on an unprecedented execution spree, ordering the deaths of 13 people in a matter of months - more federal executions than in the prior 70 years combined.  Rep. Ayanna Pressley: "State-sanctioned murder is not justice. And the death penalty is a cruel, racist and fundamentally flawed punishment that has no place in our society. It is deeply discriminatory and has disproportionately been weaponized against Black, Brown and low-income families for far too long. It is long past time for President Biden to make good on his campaign promise to address the federal death penalty." .