WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) - Democrats and criminal justice advocates are ramping up pressure on President Joe Biden to commute the sentences of roughly 40 people currently on death row.  Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) who’s leading the charge, says she fears President-elect Donald Trump will continue the “spree of executions” enacted during his first term.  For the first time in nearly 20 years Trump restarted federal executions. Pressley says during Trump’s final months in office, 13 individuals on death row were executed. “We must move with urgency to ensure history does not repeat itself,” says Pressley. President Joe Biden has just over a month to decide if he will grant federal prisoners’ clemency. Since taking office, his administration paused all federal executions. The White House says the president is currently “evaluating” clemency petitions. Herman Lindsey, who sat on death row for three years before being exonerated, joined advocates on Capitol Hill calling for President Biden to “do the right thing.” "Give us people a chance to fight to make it right," he said at a special House hearing. Lisa Brown's son was executed while Trump was in office. Through tears she describes the pain watching him die for 28 minutes. Although her son was convicted of a double homicide nearly 20 years ago, she says the death penalty is not justice but rather “state sponsored murder.” Zack Smith, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, strongly disagrees.  Smith says death row sentences are often a result of a heinous crime and while the president does have the right to review cases, he insists granting blanket amnesty is a “miscarriage of justice.” “I suspect many people in the community and victim families would not support such a blanket commutation," says Smith. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) says the death penalty is warranted in specific cases and calls Democrat efforts “unhinged.”