Biden’s death row commutations spared child killers, a rapist, and a drug kingpin from execution

Child killers, rapists, and a drug kingpin were among the group of death row inmates whose sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden in a Christmastime clemency spree motivated by his belief America must stop using the death penalty. 

The White House announced on Monday, two days before Christmas, that the president would commute the death sentences of 37 of 40 total federal inmates currently on death row, except for a terrorist and two notorious mass shooters. 

The 37 instead received adjusted sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The White House said the decision stemmed from Biden’s opposition to the death penalty and aligned with his Justice Department’s moratorium on federal executions beginning in July 2021. 

“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,” President Biden said in a statement. 

“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,” he continued. “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.” 

Despite Biden's feelings about the death penalty, Politico reported that three notorious mass murderers were left unspared: Robert Bowers, who killed 11 at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018; Dylann Roof, perpetrator of the 2015 Mother Emanuel AME Church killings in Charleston, S.C.; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 2013 Boston Marathon bomber. Biden justified withholding the three killers' commutations on the basis they were "terrorism" or “hate-motivated mass murders.”

But critics say the victims, and especially children are the real losers of this new clemency spree. The public outcry over the pardon has also drawn considerable attention from lawmakers. Senator John Kennedy, R-La., has posted on X a series of details of the various murderers whose sentences have been commuted by President Biden.

Here are just three of the individuals who now face life in prison, rather than an execution, due to Biden’s act of clemency in the waning days of his presidency who committed—or ordered—brutal murders. 

You can read the full list of the names of the 37 people who were spared execution, here. 

A Child Murderer

One man pardoned by Biden was convicted of kidnapping and murdering a 12-year-old girl during a cross-country roadtrip in 2010. The man, Thomas Sanders, met the girl’s mother, Suellen Roberts in the summer of 2010 in Las Vegas and began dating. Two months later, Suellen agreed to bring her daughter on a road trip to a wildlife park near the Grand Canyon with Sanders, according to a Justice Department press release. 

On the return trip, Sanders pulled over in a remote area and fatally shot Suellen Roberts in the head and took Lexis Roberts captive. Sanders proceeded to drive for several days across the country until arriving in Louisiana, where he shot Lexis four times, cut her throat, and abandoned her body in the woods. 

A local hunter discovered Lexis Roberts’ body in the woods and altered authorities who pursued Sanders and arrested him in October 2010. Sanders was convicted and sentenced to death by a jury in September 2014. 

A Philadelphia drug kingpin

Also on the list is Philadelphia drug kingpin Kaboni Savage, on death row for ordering a hit on the home of a federal witness in his drug trial that killed six. He was also convicted of six additional murder charges over the course of his career. 

According to the Justice Department, Savage operated a drug enterprise in North Philadelphia from at least late 1997 until 2010, during which time he involved in at least 12 murders. 

When Savage was indicted on drug charge charges in 2004, he ordered a hit on the family members of a witness who had testified for the prosecution, Eugene Coleman. Coleman was a former associate who had been arrested that same year and agreed to testify against Savage at the drug trial. His associate, Lamont Lewis, later pleaded guilty to firebombing the Coleman home, killing six family members, including four children—ages 15 months to 15 years old. 

When Coleman was released from prison temporarily to attend the funerals, a bug in Savage’s cell caught him saying: “They should stop off and get him some barbecue sauce … pour it on them burnt b—s,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. 

A serial killer

Biden’s commutation list also included a man described by one judge as “a serial killer.” 

Jorge Alvira-Torrez was convicted 2011 of the murder of Navy Petty Officer Amanda Jean Snell as she slept in her barracks. Alvira-Torrez was already in prison for several abductions and a rape, for which he was also later convicted. 

According to the Justice Department, Alvira-Torrez was a corporal in the Marine Corps living on the same floor of the barracks as his victim, Amanda Snell. One night in 2009, as Alvira-Torrez later told a fellow prisoner wearing a wire, he snuck into Snell’s room using an unlocked door, jumped on her as she was asleep, and used a power cord to restrain and strangle her. After he killed Snell, he stuffed her body in a wall locker where it was found the following morning by a Navy supervisor.

During his time in Virginia, Alvira-Torrez was convicted for abducting three women in Northern Virginia, one of which he left for dead after sexually assaulting and strangling her, though she survived and reported the crime. 

The DNA gathered from Alvira-Torrez linked him to two murders in his hometown of Chicago. On Mother's Day in 2005, two young girls, the 8-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias went missing. After a search by police and family, their bodies were found in a public park with stab wounds on their necks and faces. The girls had also been sexually assaulted. 

The police originally suspected Hobbs’ father, Jerry Hobbs, who spent five years in prison, after a false confession, awaiting trial for the murders before Alvira-Torrez was caught. 

Deportation possible

Pardons and commutations are not reversible by President-elect Trump, and the Department of Justice explains that "A commutation of sentence has no effect on a person’s immigration status and will not prevent removal or deportation from the United States. To be eligible to apply for commutation of sentence, a person must have reported to prison to begin serving his sentence and may not be challenging his conviction in the courts. A pardon is an expression of the President’s forgiveness and ordinarily is granted in recognition of the applicant’s acceptance of responsibility for the crime and established good conduct for a significant period of time after conviction or completion of sentence."

Trump -- a proponent of the death penalty -- may very well deport those on this list.