Activists have called for Biden to commute the sentence of many or all federal death row inmates for some time. More than 130 civil and human rights groups penned a letter to the president in early December calling on him to commute the sentences of "all individuals on federal death row."

Former federal prosecutor Derek Shoemake, who worked a death row case, speaks out on the difficulty of seeing President Biden commute the sentence of a "remorseless murderer."