Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) commended President Biden Monday for commuting the sentences of 37 federal inmates on death row, arguing that capital punishment is “racist.”
“There is no action more powerful or righteous than sparing someone’s life, and today President Biden is doing just that,” the member of the far-left “Squad” of liberal lawmakers said in a statement.
Pressley, 50, described the 82-year-old commander in chief’s decision to spare dozens of convicted murderers and rapists from death as a “historic and groundbreaking act of compassion that will save lives, address the deep racial disparities in our criminal legal system, and send a powerful message about redemption, decency, and humanity.”
“The death penalty is a racist, flawed, and fundamentally unjust punishment that has no place in any society,” the congresswoman argued. “For far too long, it has been disproportionately weaponized against Black and brown communities, exacerbated systemic inequities, and failed to make America any safer — which is why we’ve urged the president for years to work with us to abolish the federal death penalty.”
“By taking this historic action, President Biden is demonstrating the type of moral leadership this moment demands,” she added.
Jorge Avila-Torrez, 42, was among the federal prisoners on death row who saw their sentences reduced to life without parole.
Avila-Torrez was convicted of strangling 20-year-old Amanda Snell to death inside her Arlington, Va., Navy barrack in July 2009.
In addition to murdering Snell, in May 2005, Avila-Torrez sexually assaulted and murdered two young girls — Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9 — who had been riding their bicycles in their neighborhood in a suburb north of Chicago.
The murderer also kidnapped and raped a Virginia graduate student in February 2010, a few months after he murdered Snell.
“What justification does [Biden] have for doing this? I want to have him explain to us, to our faces, why he chose to give them mercy when they didn’t give other people mercy,” Snell’s brother, Alex Snell, told The Post.
“He should have gotten that penalty.”
Meanwhile, Pressley cheered the commutations as a “victory” for the “impacted families” of the death-row inmates, as well as supporters of abolishing capital punishment.
“It is their unwavering commitment to the dignity and humanity of every person that has made this moment possible,” the Massachusetts Democrat said.
“I thank President Biden for heeding our calls and leading with compassion, and I encourage him to continue using his clemency authority in the final days of his presidency,” Pressley concluded.
The congresswoman made no mention of the victims, such as Amada Snell and the Hobbs sisters, killed by the federal inmates granted clemency.
Pressley’s office did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
