Biden’s commutations paradoxically prove the pro-death-penalty case

Taken at the urging of capital punishment opponents, President Joe Biden’s commutation — to life imprisonment — of 37 out of the 40 pending federal death sentences paradoxically strengthens the main argument of capital punishment supporters. Death-penalty abolitionists say this inherently atrocious penalty never fits any crime. Proponents consider it appropriate punishment for “the worst of the worst,” a category democratic institutions can and should define.

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