Activists have called for Biden to commute the sentence of many or all federal death row inmates for some time. More than 130 civil and human rights groups penned a letter to the president in early December calling on him to commute the sentences of "all individuals on federal death row."

Two days before Christmas, Velda Robinson felt like she was robbed of long-awaited justice when she heard her daughter's killer was spared execution.

President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row Monday — a list that includes at least five child killers and several mass murderers.