DPA Federal Toolkit 2024.docx

Federal Commutation Toolkit

This is URGENT. Donald Trump relishes the power to oversee executions, and his stated plan is to execute all remaining prisoners on the federal death row. That is why it is vital that President Biden deny him that opportunity by commuting the remaining seven federal (3) and military (4) death sentences.

Background

While running for the presidency in 2020, Joe Biden’s policy statements called for an end to executions and indicated his administration would work to abolish the federal death penalty and incentivize states to work towards the same goal.

President Biden nominated Merrick Garland to become the Attorney General, who articulated a clear understanding of the Biden Administration’s position during his confirmation hearing. While the Department of Justice has maintained an independent policy of pursuing and maintaining death sentences for killers convicted of terrorism or hate crimes, it has rescinded a number of “death notices” in other cases.

The President does not have the power to unilaterally abolish the death penalty. Congress must send him legislation for his signature, and that is not going to happen any time soon. The Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act has not moved and the President has not invested effort towards that goal. Such legislation would seem impossible to move forward in the near future.

The Biden Administration now has the opportunity to create a positive legacy on this issue by exercising the Presidential power of clemency by commuting all remaining federal and military death sentences. Doing so will ensure that the next President will not oversee judicial executions, and will thus save dozens of lives.

President Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 of the 44 individuals on federal and military death row. He must now #FinishTheJob by commuting the remaining seven. We are also urging him to order the demolition of the federal death house in Terre Haute, Indiana. Those are our remaining primary goals during the transition period following the 2024 election.

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ACTION ITEMS:

ORGANIZATIONS of all sorts: Add your organization’s name to the Organizational sign-on Letter to President Biden. Click here to see the 446+ organizations have signed on so far. If you have the authority to do so, click here to add your organization.
Sign the petition urging Biden to act now

bit.ly/BidenDPA

Call the White House: “Urge President Biden to commute all remaining federal and military death sentences before leaving office.”

202-456-1111
202-456-1414

Write to Kamala Harris (politely)requesting her to encourage Biden to “Commute all remaining federal and military death sentences as soon as possible.”

Vice President Kamala Harris

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW

Washington, DC 20500

Write to President Biden(politely): “Commute all remaining federal death sentences and demolish the death house as soon as possible”

President Joe Biden

The The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW

Washington, DC 20500

Sample Letter to allied, partner, associated or otherwise affiliated organizations

[NAME OF YOUR ORGANIZATION] has joined hundreds of allied organizations who have signed on to a letter to President Biden asking him to commute all remaining federal and military death sentences prior to leaving office. News coverage of this effort may be seen in Newsweek, The Guardian, CNN, USA Today and others.

The next delivery of the letter is anticipated for January 8, 2024. We encourage you to add your organization to the list as soon as possible. Here is the link for more information and the form to use...

Sample Letter to Your Organization’s Individual Members. Please tell your members and invite them to add momentum with their own individual action. Edit as you see fit:

[NAME OF ORGANIZATION] has joined hundreds of allied organizations who have signed on to a letter to President Biden asking him to commute all federal and military death sentences prior to leaving office. News coverage of this effort may be seen in Newsweek, The Guardian, CNN, USA Today and others.

We encourage you to add your name to any or all of the petitions for individuals, which include Death Penalty Action, the Catholic Mobilizing Network, the ACLU and this one by the “CommuteTheRow” campaign.

If you wish to do more, please write a personal note and send it in the postal mail to President Joe Biden, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 20500.

[IF YOU WISH, ARTICULATE WHY YOUR ORG OPPOSES CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ADD THAT HERE]

Further action steps you can take are here, on the commutation toolkit, including adding other groups [OR CHAPTERS/AFFILIATES of YOUR ORG] such as faith communities, civic organizations, businesses, etc. to the sign-on letter, writing a personal letter to the President, and encouraging action by your colleagues, friends and family….

Sample Social Media Posts

President @JoeBiden needs to immediately commute every remaining death sentence on federal and military death rows. If he does not, each federal execution will be on his hands: http://bit.ly/BidenDPA #FinishTheJob #StopExecutions #PROJECT2025 @POTUS #StopTrumpExecutions
@potus can't unilaterally abolish the federal #DeathPenalty, but he has ensured no federal executions happened under his watch. Urge @JoeBiden to show mercy by commuting all remaining federal & military death sentences before his term ends #StopExecutions bit.ly/BidenDPA #FinishTheJob
@potus ensured no federal executions happened under his watch. Now we get to encourage @JoeBiden to exercise his power to commute all remaining federal and military death sentences before leaving office. Organizations, add your name: bit.ly/BidenAbolishOrgLetter #StopExecutions #FinishTheJob
More than 437 organizations (so far) have signed a letter to #PresidentBiden urging him to commute the federal death row, #AbolishTheDeathPenalty & #DemolishTheDeathHouse Take action here: bit.ly/BidenAbolishOrgLetter #StopExecutions #FinishTheJob
Take action to stop federal executions! Send @vp a polite note asking her to urge @potus to commute all federal & military death sentences #StopExecutions VP Kamala Harris, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500 #FinishTheJob
Now that the Democratic Party has removed abolishing the death penalty from their official platform it's even more incumbent on Biden to close off the possibility of any future president from resuming federal executions. #AbolishTheFederalDeathPenalty bit.ly/BidenDPA #FinishTheJob
Now more than ever we need to write to the President and urge him to use the powers available to him today to prevent the possibility of federal executions under the next president: bit.ly/BidenDPA #StopExecutions #PROJECT2025 @POTUS @JoeBiden #FinishTheJob
Now more than ever we need to encourage the President and urge him to use the powers available to him today to prevent the possibility of federal executions under the next president. Call the White House: 202.456.1111/202.456.1414 #StopExecutions #PROJECT2025 #FinishTheJob
It would be a wonderful act of mercy for President @JoeBiden to commute ALL federal & military death sentences at #Christmas. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." Sign here: bit.ly/BidenDPA #StopExecutions #PROJECT2025 #Christmas2024 #FinishTheJob
President @JoeBiden needs to immediately commute every remaining death sentence on federal and military death rows. If not, each of #Trump's executions will be on his hands: bit.ly/BidenDPA #StopExecutions #PROJECT2025 @POTUS #StopTrumpExecutions #FinishTheJob