Biden spares Philly drug kingpin, who killed 12 people, from execution
Dec 23, 2024
On Monday, President Joe Biden announced that he would commute the sentences of 37 inmates on federal death sentences, reclassifying them to life in prison without the chance of parole.
The move left only three people on federal death row: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man convicted for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that left three dead and more than 250 hurt, Robert Bowers, who was convicted of killing 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018 and Dylann Roof, who was convicted of killing nine people in a 2015 shooting at Mother Emanuel church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Among those who will see their sentences reclassified as life without the chance for parole is Kaboni Savage, a convicted Philadelphia drug kingpin who was awaiting execution for his role in the deaths of 12 people.
In 2013, Savage was convicted of, what the Associated Press called, “killing witnesses, rivals and strangers alike during a ruthless reign atop a North Philadelphia drug empire.”
He was convicted of killing two women and four children after he ordered an associate to firebomb the home on an informant in 2004 as well as rivals and a stranger who had bumped his car.
Savage was given 13 death sentences after the lengthy federal trial.
Sign up for our Breaking newsletter to get the most urgent news stories in your inbox.