House Democrat criticizes Biden's death row commutations

Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) criticized President Biden’s decision on Monday to commute the sentences of 37 people on federal death row, saying courts must have “autonomy.”

“I have real concerns overall with the death penalty, but I also have concerns with the executive branch overturning cases that have been decided by courts across the country,” the Democrat told CNN. “We have to have some autonomy there.”

“And I understand the concerns and threats of a Trump administration going forward on these, but I think the baseline is, I think you commute sentences or pardon people when you think justice was not done in those cases. It sets a precedent here, it goes well beyond pardoning his own son, which I think is a mistake, no one is above the law,” he said.

Biden, in announcing the commuted sentences, took a jab at President-elect Trump, saying, “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”

Trump, during the 2024 campaign, called for tougher criminal sentences for drug traffickers, like the death penalty.

CNN host Kate Bolduan questioned if Quigley was criticizing the use of commutations as a point of policy, and he replied that he is concerned with “how presidents handle pardons and how they handle commutations for their own reasons, for their own personal reasons.”

Biden’s commutations come as he has been under pressure to pardon more people after he granted one for his son Hunter Biden after insisting for more than a year that he would not.

Quigley released a statement when PResident Biden announced he would pardon Hunter Biden, condemning the decision and saying that no one is above the law, including the children of presidents.

He reiterated on Monday that he didn’t agree with that pardon, saying, “There's a lot of parents out there whose children are in harm's way in the justice system.”

The Illinois congressman was also among the first sitting House Democrats to call on President Biden to exit the 2024 race following his poor debate performance, saying at the time he could “prevent utter catastrophe” but dropping his reelection bid.