President Joe Biden's decision to commute the sentences of 37 death row inmates ignited a fierce debate about the morality of executions.

Opponents of capital punishment had urged the president to commute death row sentences before Donald Trump — who promised to restart federal executions — takes office.

The commutation decision falls short of Biden’s original, and unprecedented, broader 2020 campaign promise to seek to entirely eliminate federal capital punishment, and Monday’s announcement leaves in place three death sentences for some of the most notorious killers in recent U.S. history.