President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of almost all prisoners on federal death row, weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The federal prison in Terre Haute has been the site of all 16 federal executions since 2001, when Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was put to death by lethal injection.
There were 13 executions during Trump’s first term in office.
Biden’s action changes the sentences of 37 out of 40 prisoners on death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The president did not include prisoners whose cases involved “terrorism or hate-motivated mass murder,” according to his statement.
In the statement, Biden said he’s dedicated to ensuring a fair and effective justice system, and that commuting the sentences is consistent with his administration’s pause on federal executions.
Three men remain on federal death row: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; Dylann Roof, convicted for the 2015 mass shooting at a Black church in South Carolina; and Robert Bowers, convicted for the 2018 mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.
President-elect Trump has expressed interest in resuming federal executions during his second term. He will be sworn in as president on January 20.