Was Biden Right to Take Prisoners Off Death Row?

The Reason Roundtable

News, Politics

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 December 2024

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, and Peter Suderman welcome special guest Tim Carney to the…

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Reason Roundtable, the podcast from the magazine of Free Minds and Free Markets that comes to you even during journalistic dead weeks.
0:08.9	I am Matt Welch, joined by Peter Souterman, Catherine Mangue Ward, and first time special guest star, none other than Washington Examiner's senior columnist, Timothy P.
0:20.8	Carney, what does the P stand for, Timothy?
0:22.4	I bet you can guess. Paul. Patrick. Patrick. Patrick. Oh, God. It's still early here in the East
0:31.3	Coast, or at least it's really cold as hell. Anyways, welcome Tim and hello to everybody.
0:36.0	Howdy.
0:38.9	Happy holidays.
0:41.2	That's the right approach.
0:55.2	This morning, lame duck president Joseph Robinette Biden II announced he was commuting the death sentences of 37 of the 40 federal inmates on death row, changing their terms to life without possibility of parole. The three exceptions were Boston Marathon Bomber Zokar Tsarniev. I did that totally
1:01.4	right. Charleston Church Massacre Err Dylan Roof and Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers
1:07.1	in a statement. The White House said that Biden, quote, believes that America must stop
1:12.6	the use of the death penalty at the federal level, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated
1:17.5	mass murder, which is why today's actions apply to all but those cases. When President Biden came
1:23.8	into office, his administration imposed a moratorium on federal executions and his actions
1:28.8	today will prevent the next administration from carrying out the execution sentences that would not be
1:35.2	handed down under current policy and practice. And quote, Catherine, you're the editor of a
1:41.3	magazine here, reason, that I think, I'm not sure, but I think he's been pretty
1:46.4	well set against the death penalty for all or most of its 56 years. What are your thoughts
1:51.6	about today's news? It's good news. I'm happy that Joe Biden is using his pardon power
1:57.4	so far in at least a understandable and somewhat rational way. And in general,
2:04.6	the federal government should not kill people. I think that's just like a good rule. I think we
2:08.4	should go with that rule. It would be great if, in fact, Joe Biden had used any of his four
	...

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