It’s official folks, Joe Biden has done the impossible…just as we reported last week, he has indeed commuted the sentences of nearly all federal death row inmates, leaving only three still on death row. Here is the statement from Joe Biden himself, from WhiteHouse.gov: FULL TEXT: I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system. Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder. Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss. But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level. In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted. ### And here is the more detailed Fact Sheet also released by WhiteHouse.gov: Today, President Biden announced that he is commuting the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row. Those individuals will have their sentences reclassified from execution to life without the possibility of parole. President Biden has dedicated his career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system. He believes that America must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder – which is why today’s actions apply to all but those cases. 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. The President has issued more commutations at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same point in their first terms. Earlier this month, the President announced clemency for approximately 1,500 Americans – the most ever in a single day – who have shown successful rehabilitation and a commitment to making communities safer. This included sentence commutations for nearly 1,500 individuals who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities, as well as 39 pardons for individuals who were convicted of non-violent crimes. President Biden is also the first President ever to issue categorical pardons to individuals convicted of simple use and possession of marijuana, and to former LGBTQI+ service members convicted of private conduct because of their sexual orientation. The President’s criminal justice record has transformed individual lives and positively impacted communities, especially historically marginalized communities. In the coming weeks, the President will take additional steps to provide meaningful second chances and continue to review additional pardons and commutations. ### Today, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. is commuting the sentences of the following 37 individuals to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole:                       Name Reg. No. SHANNON WAYNE AGOFSKY 06267-045 BILLIE JEROME ALLEN 26901-044 AQUILIA MARCIVICCI BARNETTE 12599-058 BRANDON LEON BASHAM 98940-071 ANTHONY GEORGE BATTLE 11451-056 MEIER JASON BROWN 11364-021 CARLOS DAVID CARO 37786-079 WESLEY PAUL COONCE, JR. 30011-039 BRANDON MICHAEL COUNCIL 63961-056 CHRISTOPHER EMORY CRAMER 10422-081 LEN DAVIS 24325-034 JOSEPH EBRON 08655-007 RICKY ALLEN FACKRELL 12324-081 EDWARD LEON FIELDS, JR. 04136-063 CHADRICK EVAN FULKS 16617-074 MARVIN CHARLES GABRION, II 09184-055 EDGAR BALTAZAR GARCIA 28132-177 THOMAS MOROCCO HAGER 08596-007 CHARLES MICHAEL HALL 03766-036 NORRIS G. HOLDER 26902-044 RICHARD ALLEN JACKSON 16669-058 JURIJUS KADAMOVAS 21050-112 DARYL LAWRENCE 66476-061 IOURI MIKHEL 23675-112 RONALD MIKOS 20716-424 JAMES H. ROANE, JR. 32923-083 JULIUS OMAR ROBINSON 26190-177 DAVID ANTHONY RUNYON 57997-083 RICARDO SANCHEZ, JR. 75820-004 THOMAS STEVEN SANDERS 15967-043 KABONI SAVAGE 58232-066 MARK ISAAC SNARR 11093-081 REJON TAYLOR 41070-074 RICHARD TIPTON 32922-083 JORGE AVILA TORREZ 16054-084 DANIEL TROYA 75817-004 ALEJANDRO ENRIQUE RAMIREZ UMAÑA 23077-058 The only three to not be commuted are: 1. Dylann Roof – Charlestown church shooter 2. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev – Boston bomber 3. Robert Bowers – Tree of Life Synagogue shooter BREAKING: “Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole.” -President Biden The three death row Individuals not commuted by POTUS are, 1. Dylann Roof – Charlestown church shooter2.… pic.twitter.com/prE0Z3kiLy — Officer Lew (@officer_Lew) December 23, 2024 It should be noted these are commutations, not pardons and that is a big difference. What this means: Commutation in this context means that these individuals will no longer face the death penalty but instead will spend the rest of their lives in prison. They are not free to go; they will remain incarcerated without the chance for parole. Life without parole: This is a severe sentence where the prisoners will not be eligible for release. They will stay in prison until they die, but they will not be executed. Exclusions: The commutations do not apply to three individuals: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Dylann Roof, and Robert Bowers, who are involved in cases of terrorism or hate-fueled mass murder. Their sentences remain unchanged. This move by Biden reflects his stance on the death penalty, which he has criticized for its moral and ethical implications, its racial biases, and the risk of executing innocent people. It also preempts any potential execution plans by the incoming administration of Donald Trump, who has expressed support for expanding capital punishment. WLTReport had previously reported the following: Biden Commutes Sentences For Nearly ALL Death Row Inmates Biden Commutes Sentences For Nearly ALL Death Row Inmates The White House announced on Monday that Joe Biden will commute the sentences for nearly all federal inmates on death row. Currently, there are 40 federal inmates on death row, and Biden will commute the sentences for 37 of them. Not included are “Robert Bowers, who is responsible for the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, which left 11 people dead; Dylann Roof, a White supremacist who killed nine Black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who worked with his now-dead brother to perpetuate the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds.” The 37 men on death row will have their sentences commuted to life in prison, taking the death penalty off the table. Biden commutes death sentences of child killers and mass murderers 2 days before Christmas https://t.co/NX7Fg292oD pic.twitter.com/HWqe9QK0U6 — New York Post (@nypost) December 23, 2024 BREAKING: Biden commutes the sentences of 37 out of 40 inmates on federal death row pic.twitter.com/dLr9HkThcz — BNO News (@BNONews) December 23, 2024 Check out what Fox News reported: President Biden is commuting the sentences of nearly all the inmates on federal death row, a move that comes not even two weeks after he went through with the "largest single-day grant of clemency" in American history, the White House announced Monday. Of the 40 inmates on federal death row, according to DeathPenaltyInfo.org, Biden is commuting 37 men sentenced to death, reclassifying their sentences to life without the possibility of parole. The three inmates not included are: Robert Bowers, who is responsible for the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, which left 11 people dead; Dylann Roof, a White supremacist who killed nine Black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who worked with his now-dead brother to perpetuate the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds. The men being resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole are convicted of various murderous acts against one person or multiple. Among the victims of the 37 men are law enforcement officers, children and other inmates. A handful of the men on death row were also set to be executed with their co-defendants. Biden, who only supports the death penalty at the federal level for "terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder," said this move will prevent President-elect Donald Trump's administration from "carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice," according to the White House statement. BREAKING: President Joe Biden announced he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment mere weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. https://t.co/6aoz0MJtsw — The Associated Press (@AP) December 23, 2024 Per AP: President Joe Biden announced on Monday that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office. The move spares the lives of people convicted in killings, including the slayings of police and military officers, people on federal land and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, as well as the killings of guards or prisoners in federal facilities. It means just three federal inmates are still facing execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of life Synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history.

President Donald Trump was re-elected in a landslide last month, in large part due to his vow to clean up the border mess he will inherit from the Biden administration. After former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Tom Homan was confirmed to serve as the next border czar, he began speaking about what his first orders of business will be. During a recent interview, he called out the ACLU specifically for its efforts to stymie the incoming Trump administration’s efforts to close the border. According to the Daily Caller: “We’re going to do the job. They’re not going to stop us. They can make it difficult. They can make it less efficient. They can make it dangerous. What they need to understand, and every sanctuary city needs to understand, we can arrest a bad guy in the safety and security of a jail,” Homan said. “That’s safe for the alien. It’s safe for the officers. It’s safe for the community,” Homan said. “But when they knowingly release a public safety threat back in the community, it puts the community at risk.It puts our agents at risk. It puts the alien at risk.” “For God’s sakes, we’ve been clear. We want to put public safety threats first. No one should be against removing public safety threats out of the community, especially if they’re here illegally. I find it amazing every day that I hear this stuff, but they’re not going to stop us,” Homan said. “We’re going to do this. You’re not going to stop us. I can’t wait until Kristi Noem gets to her confirmation. She’s going to be an outstanding secretary. With President Trump, her, and myself, we’ll get this done,” Homan added. In November Trump announced his nomination of Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to help lead as director of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), stating she will be “a great part of our mission to Make America Safe Again.” Homan’s outspokenness has been on full display since well before last month’s election: When President Trump walks back into the Oval Office in January of 2025. We’ll lock this border down in 120 days. Make this go viral! pic.twitter.com/Ajnb4Zja1l — Tom Homan (@RealTomHoman) December 13, 2023 “I promised President Trump when he announced that if he goes back, I go back. And I’m going to run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen because these millions of people being released in this country, nine out of 10 will get an order of removal based on… pic.twitter.com/738twk0Tsa — Tom Homan (@RealTomHoman) November 19, 2023 POLL: New Trump Border Czar Tom Homan says they will arrest any governor that interferes in mass deportation there of illegal aliens. Would you support Tom Homan arresting Democrat Illinois Governor Pritzker if he interferes? Yes or No pic.twitter.com/7jDUy4IQtx — Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) December 22, 2024 The ACLU sued ICE recently, insisting Trump’s re-election should be sufficient cause to expedite the release of requested deportation records, as Courthouse News Service reported: The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California seeks records about the agency’s ICE Air Operations. The program is comprised of what the ACLU called “a sprawling and opaque network” of privately owned planes chartered by the government to remove noncitizens from the United States. “Despite the critical role these flights play in the removal system — in many instances, serving as the mechanism for deportation — ICE Air remains shrouded in secrecy,” the ACLU writes. Trump’s statements about his plan to arrest noncitizens on a massive scale and deport them have put a spotlight on the ICE Air program, the ACLU says. The records it seeks will reveal any risks that could arise if the program’s capacity is increased. Specifically, the ACLU wants records about ICE Air’s removal operations from Jan. 1, 2023, to the present. That includes contracts for flights, ground transport to those flights, airfields ICE uses or has access to for the flights, and policies and procedures about staffing and flights, including those with unaccompanied children. Here’s a clip of Homan’s recent remarks:

President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 men on federal death row, a list that includes at least five child killers and several mass murderers, just two days before Christmas. 

Last Monday was the 251st anniversary of The Boston Tea Party. Each man kept his own secret that night, and no one had spoken of those events for 50 years. Due to this vow of secrecy, we have just one firsthand account from one man, George R. T. Hewes. George Robert Twelves Hewes (1742-1840) was a […] The post The Only 1st-Hand Account of the Boston Tea Pary, 251 Years Ago appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Bucking the intent of the incoming Trump administration to cut down on unnecessary expenditures, California Democrats in Congress sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urging him to hurry and approve additional funding for California’s floundering high-speed rail project. On November 30, the incoming Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, noted on X: Summary of California High Speed Rail Project: Originally projected (in 2008) to cost $33 billion; now projected to cost between $88.5 and $127.9 billion. Estimated completion date was 2020; as of 2024, zero passengers have been transported and the majority has not even been fully designed. Received $6.8 billion in federal funds. Requesting $8 billion in additional federal funds. Summary of California High Speed Rail Project:-Originally projected (in 2008) to cost $33 billion; now projected to cost between $88.5 and $127.9 billion -Estimated completion date was 2020; as of 2024, zero passengers have been transported and the majority has not even been… — Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) November 30, 2024   Those estimates were similar to what the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The media outlet said that the cost of building California’s largely unfinished high-speed rail line — of which California Democrat governor Gavin Newsom bragged, “We’re making rail real in California” — was initially estimated at $33 billion, has now ballooned to over $100 billion. CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE “On Friday, Democratic lawmakers Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, and Reps. Pete Aguilar, Jim Costa, and Zoe Lofgren sent a letter to Buttigieg calling on him to approve funding for the first phase of the project,” the Sacramento Bee reported on Monday. The letter asked for $536 million in federal funds, acknowledging, “The FSP-National grant application is part of an ongoing federal-state partnership that has provided approximately $28.8 billion in funding for California High-Speed Rail, including $22 billion from state funds and $6.8 billion from federal funds. … By preparing for future final design and construction of complex tunnels in this corridor, the Project will advance both state and federal goals to improve safety, expand economic strength and global competitiveness, address equity issues, and implement sustainability practices to confront climate change.” “The project has struggled in recent years with obtaining federal funding, and it has been beset with both delays and cost overruns. It’s [sic] initial scope — of a high-speed rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco — has been reduced to the first step of a planned route from Merced to Bakersfield,” the Bee noted. Last week, Newsom mocked DOGE, saying of it, “I dunno, this is like a promo project.”

An illegal immigrant from Guatemala who had been deported by the previous Trump administration was arrested Sunday for allegedly setting a woman on fire on the New York City subway. The suspect, 33, has not been named publicly, but the New York Post reported that he first entered the U.S. illegally in 2018 during the first Trump administration, but was deported within days. The man then re-entered the U.S. under the Biden administration’s lax border laws, according to reporter Nick Sortor. ? #BREAKING: The Trump administration previously DEPORTED the Guatemalan migrant who set a woman on fire, per NYP But when he re-entered the country illegally under Biden, he was RELEASED into the interior INFURIATING. The kller was even living in an NYC migrant shelter, and… pic.twitter.com/lJgIPmbw4c — Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) December 23, 2024 The Post reported that it is unknown how long the suspect has been in New York, but law enforcement sources told the outlet that the man stayed at multiple taxpayer-funded migrant shelters around New York City. Those same sources told the Post that the suspect’s previous criminal history is “largely clean” except for entering the country illegally. Video of the woman on fire went viral Sunday evening, showing her standing in the doorway as a law enforcement officer walks by without offering assistance. The video also showed the suspect sitting on a bench facing the train car and watching the woman burn to death. Also on Sunday, two people were stabbed in a separate attack on the subway, with a man stabbed in the chest who later died and another man stabbed in the face. After these attacks, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul put out a tweet claiming crime was down on the subways, which was immediately mocked on social media, The Daily Wire reported. “In March, I took action to make our subways safer for the millions of people who take the trains each day. Since deploying the @NationalGuardNY to support @NYPDnews and @MTA safety efforts and adding cameras to all subway cars, crime is going down, and ridership is going up,” Hochul wrote on X. In March, I took action to make our subways safer for the millions of people who take the trains each day. Since deploying the @NationalGuardNY to support @NYPDnews and @MTA safety efforts and adding cameras to all subway cars, crime is going down, and ridership is going up. pic.twitter.com/T7uRxx9nIO — Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) December 22, 2024 Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) criticized Hochul’s tweet after news of the stabbings and burning broke. “Two hours ago, Kathy Hochul took a victory lap for making subways ‘safer.’ She congratulates herself on the same day two subway riders were stabbed in Queens (one in the face and one in the chest) and another was barbarically burned alive. Has there ever been a more tone-deaf Governor in the history of New York?” Torres posted. Two hours ago, Kathy Hochul took a victory lap for making subways “safer.” She congratulates herself on the same day two subway riders were stabbed in Queens (one in the face and one in the chest) and another was barbarically burned alive. Has there ever been a more tone-deaf… pic.twitter.com/KIPujqpKa3 — Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) December 22, 2024 The woman who was burned alive was apparently sleeping when the suspect lit a match and tossed it on her. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Sunday that it was “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit,” the Post reported.