US President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 federal death row inmates to life in prison without parole.

The three people excluded from the measure include the Boston Marathon bomber and the man who killed Jewish worshipers in 2018.

In a statement, Biden said he was “convinced more than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.” His measure covers no more than 2,000 people sentenced to death by state authorities.

Biden’s decision comes ahead of the January return of President-elect Donald Trump, who resumed federal executions during his term.

Among those Biden has pardoned are nine people convicted of murdering fellow inmates, four of murder in bank robberies and one who killed a prison guard.

“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, mourn the victims of their heinous acts, and mourn all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden added.

Disgraced former New Orleans police officer Len Davis, who ran a drug ring with other officers and arranged the murder of a woman, is among those shown clemency.

The three still on death row include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who helped carry out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and self-confessed white supremacist Dylann Roof, who shot and killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015 .

Robert Bowers, who killed 11 Jewish worshipers in a mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, will also remain on death row.

Biden campaigned as an opponent of the death penalty, and the Justice Department issued a moratorium on its use at the federal level after he took office.

During his first term, Trump oversaw 13 Deaths by lethal injection during his final six months in power.

No federal inmates had been executed in the United States since 2003 until Trump resumed federal executions in July 2020.

During his re-election campaign, Trump indicated that he would expand the use of the death penalty to target human and drug traffickers, as well as migrants who kill American citizens.

Biden appeared to reference Trump’s intentions in his statement, saying he “could not in good conscience resign and allow a new administration to resume the executions that I stopped.”

Under U.S. law, these clemency decisions cannot be reversed by a president’s successor.

Biden’s decision will have no impact on people sentenced to death in state courts around 2,250 Inmates, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. More than 70 federal executions were carried out during Biden’s presidency.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states. Moratoriums are in effect in six other states, including Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

Earlier this month, Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes.

He also pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who was facing conviction on two criminal charges. He pleaded guilty to tax charges in early September and was convicted of illegal drug use and gun possession in June, making him the first child of a sitting president to be convicted of a crime.

The U.S. Constitution requires that a president has broad authority to “grant pardons and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.”