President Biden’s commutations torch his legacy

President Joe Biden seems determined to torch his legacy as the grains of sand run down the hourglass of his historic presidency.

Historic?

Yes, for two reasons.

First, his accomplishments. I would say action to prevent a depression during the Covid lockdown may be No. 1, but there are many more listed here. Yes, the list is published by the White House, and you can argue with much of it. Be my guest.

Second reason it was historic? The first time a sitting President who had won renomination decided to walk away from it. (With good reason, I think, and you can see Nancy Pelosi’s handprints on his back.) 

In the past few weeks he pardoned his son artiste d’cocaine Hunter, after repeatedly promising he wouldn’t do so, and in explaining why he did so, Joe cast aspersions on the American justice system, which is exactly what Donald J. Trump does nonstop. Biden has put his seal of approval on Trumpian victimization fantasies. 

Biden was too dim to try to hide Hunter’s pardon in a list of some 1,500 others to whom he granted clemency or pardons about a week later.

And now he’s commuted the death sentences of 37 who are the worst of the worst, including child killers and cop killers. Americans traditionally are more disturbed by the deaths of children, who are innocent of sin, and police officers who are regarded (among others) as symbols of the nation. In the same way that an assassination is more than just a murder.

Biden commuted the sentences of 37 to life without parole (don’t bet on it, more later), left three other pieces of human waste on death row.

He’s a hypocrite and a moral weakling.

Why? Biden has long said he opposes capital punishment and ordered a moratorium on executions in federal prisons.

If your convictions lead you to believe the government has no right to take a life, then you must save them all —  40, not 37.

If you believe the 1) Boston Marathon bomber, 2) Tree of Life synagogue murderer, and 3) the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church killer, somehow are exempt from your virtue signaling, allow me to believe the other 37 should be put down.

Will Joe Biden issue a pardon to Luigi Mangione, at least on the federal charges? 

Yes, I am for capital punishment, and I’ll tell you why.

Among the 37 are a handful who were sentenced to death for killing a fellow inmate. They are now free to kill again. You can’t keep them in solitary 24 hours a day. The U.S. Supreme Court has outlawed that as cruel and unusual. 

Locally, the Curran-Frumhold prison is named after two corrections officers who were killed by inmates, inmates who were free to kill again under Democratic governors who did not believe in capital punishment.

So that’s one reason I am for the death penalty, and only in cases of premeditated murder where guilt has been established beyond question.

Another reason  seems contralogical: We hold life to be so dear, we kill those who illegally extinguish it. The difference, of course, is between innocent life and guilty life — the guilty life being taken only after an excruciating judicial process.

A third reason is to enable plea bargaining. You have long heard that being jailed for life is a worse punishment than execution. If that’s true, why do so many accused take the deal? Is it because three meals, free medical care and board, TV and a weight room may not be all that bad?

The plea bargain means a lengthy and costly trial is averted, and the victim’s family and friends are not forced to relive it during a trial. 

Fourth, and final for now, I simply do not believe life means life, and I don’t believe because I have seen numerous cases of prisoners who found Jesus, or an education, or something else, and who have found advocates to argue they are “changed” and should be released.

And changed they may be, but what has not changed was a jury’s verdict and a judge’s sentence.