Biden commutes sentences of 37 of 40 federal death row inmates to life in prison without possibility of parole

President Biden is granting clemency to 37 of the 40 federal inmates facing death sentences. Their sentences will be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The three inmates who didn't get clemency are the convicted murderer in the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting, the gunman at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, and the surviving Boston Marathon bomber.

The announcement is sure to spark partisan debate, even though presidential commutation and pardon power are broad, constitutionally enshrined and irreversible.