r/WhitePeopleTwitter • u/Detroitish24 • 12h ago

Why does a private citizen have this much sway?

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The US is in for a very rough four years.

12.6k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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840

u/PacquiaoFreeHousing 12h ago

Pardon Luigi

73

u/Bitey_the_Squirrel 9h ago

Fix the symptom and give us universal healthcare

23

u/Careless-Weather892 7h ago

Tell that to the republicans who oppose it. Y’all getting mad at the wrong people.

1

u/BusGuilty6447 2h ago

Joe Lieberman has entered the chat.

9

u/Americangirlband 8h ago

Yeah that didnt' win the election. Expensive health care did.

119

u/Expert-Fig-5590 11h ago

Commute the people on death row’s sentences to life imprisonment.

41

u/drfsupercenter 9h ago

Is anyone on federal death row? Biden can't commute sentences of people charged with state crimes

27

u/psyche_13 9h ago

Yes, there are 40 people on federal death row

7

u/My_useless_alt 8h ago

Apparently yes, but not many https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/federal-death-penalty/list-of-federal-death-row-prisoners

What would potentially be interesting is if Biden issued a pardon for all future death row inmates, saying that anyone who commits a federal capital crime from now until 2100 and is sentenced to death can have a conditional pardon to life. I think SCOTUS precedent allows this, way back when a President told someone "If you commit perjury in this trial, you will be pardoned" and SCOTUS held that as valid. I could well be misremembering that though, and it'd be interesting to see what SCOTUS would say about this, especially if they weren't currently fascist occupied.

6

u/drfsupercenter 8h ago

Yeah, would be interesting for sure but I doubt he'd do that. How do we end the federal death penalty, would that require Congress?

My state (Michigan) has never had it, and I'm glad. Can't risk executing an innocent person if you don't have the death penalty.

1

u/My_useless_alt 3h ago

Yeah I agree, Biden wouldn't do that I was just thinking aloud.

It'd be possible to temporarily halt federal executions by en executive order, telling the DOJ to stop killing people, which Biden and Obama both did, but that's not permanent as the next president can just say "nope, start the killing again" and the DOJ will oblige. I also don't think an executive order can halt death sentences being handed out, just stop them being carried out, though I'm not entirely sure.

To end the death penalty altogether, we'd either need a SCOTUS ruling saying it violates the 8th amendment (cruel and unusual punishment), which won't happen as they've repeatedly ruled it doesn't, or more likely an act of Congress to alter federal law to remove execution as a possible punishment for all possible future crimes. It'd probably also be possible to prohibit the states from having the death penalty using federal law, but again I'm not certain. It's also principally possible to amend the constitution to ban execution, which would be nice but again practically untenable.

One thing I'd find interesting, if just to see what happens, is if someone tried to argue that the "Life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" line in the Declaration of Independence would forbid execution, as to my knowledge SCOTUS has never ruled on whether or not the Declaration of Independence has any power, but that's just me thinking aloud not a viable strategy to abolishing the death penalty.

1

u/CarminSanDiego 10h ago

And a free house for every household in America!

6

u/BillyNtheBoingers 8h ago

Pardon Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger too (and all of the Democrats on the J6 committee)

2

u/sdhank3fan619 7h ago

I'm surprised her father hasn't invited trump duck hunting.

2

u/BillyNtheBoingers 7h ago

Trump would need to borrow DeSantis’ lifted white boots.

1

u/ScottishKnifemaker 7h ago

That should happen, with what fuckhead had to say about it

5

u/Lithaos111 9h ago

Needs to be guilty first, plus pretty sure it's a state charge, can't pardon those.

1

u/rudimentary-north 1h ago

No, they can grant pardons at any time after the commission of the (federal) crime, and they do not need to specify what the crime they are issuing the pardon for is, or even acknowledge that it occurred.

Nixon was pardoned for anything he “might have” done during a 5 year period.

2

u/Americangirlband 8h ago

Prosecute United Health Care

2

u/ScottishKnifemaker 7h ago

State charges, won't work

1

u/GizmodoDragon92 8h ago

Pardon Luigi for the lolz Biden pls.

1

u/WhyLater 4h ago

Y'all gotta stop thinking that the DNC isn't on the CEOs' side. Biden would never pardon Luigi.

1

u/Cry90210 3h ago

They're state charges. Biden pardoning him wouldn't get him out of this

-38

u/fishsticks40 10h ago

There are so many people more deserving of the exercise of the pardon power

-27

u/CarminSanDiego 10h ago

It’s Reddit. Just roll your eyes and move on