To say that it was an interesting year is to say that the Earth rotates around the Sun, something that isn’t as much of a slam dunk as it would appear.  Ask Galileo.

But the truth is that every year is interesting in its own way, and this one included the death of a hero (Alexei Navalny), the toppling of a dictator (Bashar al Assad), the implosion of a president (Joe Biden), two assassination attempts on a former president (Donald Trump), the conviction for hush money payments made by a former president (Donald Trump), the re-election of a former president, (Donald Trump).

Suffice it to say that a lot happened, and any one of the above-mentioned events would have been shocking, taken in isolation. However, when they all happened during the same turn around the sun, it would appear that we have entered a new era foreseen by that great prognosticator Cole Porter: Anything Goes.

Personally, I think that the one true thing that has changed in the American psyche is that we are no longer capable of being shocked. In an age when Artificial Intelligence can manipulate reality, so that we actually believe the words coming out of the mouths on our phone screens even though they were created by toxic shadow figures, it is hard to exclude any possibility, any alternative, any result from becoming manifest.

But I was shocked at how actually shocked I could still be by some things. One of those things was the pardon of most federal death row prisoners issued by Joe Biden in the waning days of his lame-duck administration. 

Biden has already made waves with his pardon of his son Hunter, a recovering drug addict who may or may not have also been involved in shady “bring your daddy to work on grifting in the Ukraine” deals. When papa pardoned Junior, I smirked and expressed a complete lack of surprise while many of my conservative friends were wailing about Joe lying. Yes, he said he wouldn’t pardon his son. Yes, he changed his mind. Even that most charitable interpretations didn’t phase me.

Presidents have the power to do these things, regardless of how repellent they may appear to be. Let it rest, I said.

But then Biden, who clings to the tattered threads of his Catholic identity with the desperation of a man nearing Judgment Day invoked the “each life is precious” philosophy of the church as well as the troublesome incidence of wrongful convictions, and commuted the death sentences of 37 out of 40 federal prisoners. That isn’t exactly a pardon: most will be automatically converted into life sentences. But for all intents and purposes, it has the same effect: an erasure of the decisions judges and juries arrived at after reviewing the facts of each case.

One of those cases involved Kiboni Savage, whose last name is as perfect as if it were chosen by the Devil himself. This is a man who ordered the fire-bombing of a home in North Philadelphia that took the lives of four children. They were incinerated in their beds. The hit was ordered by Savage who was incarcerated at the time, in retaliation for the witness testimony provided by the children’ s relative.

Considering the commutation of this sentence and the idea that “all lives matter,” I was forced to reflect on Biden’s embrace of, and absolute devotion to, abortion rights. Any suggestion that he is motivated by the moral teachings of our shared faith becomes laughable when you listen to our current president’s lectures on how the dignity of women is based upon their ability to issue death sentences to their unborn children. No pardons for them, even in the face of their absolute innocence. 

But even beyond that incongruent hypocrisy, the idea that people who have committed the most heinous crimes should not suffer the most heinous penalties is one of the most troubling and repellent things that have come from our evolving views on criminal justice.

Living in a city where my own District Attorney is loath to charge the death penalty even in cases of the cold-blooded executions of police officers, I am used to the arguments of progressives and their allies in the faith communities that capital punishment violates the 8th Amendment — which by the way it doesn’t. I have heard the litany of cases where innocent people have been wrongly convicted and then wrongly executed. That last situation is compelling, to the point where I’d agree to a moratorium until actual guilt was established beyond any — not a reasonable — doubt.

I am aware of the statistics that show a disproportionate number of those on death row are minorities.

I also understand that we are one of the few civilized societies where the death penalty is still a viable option, even though it’s rarely applied.

But there is no reason to look at a man like Kiboni Savage, whose crime is inhuman and whose guilt is undisputed, and argue that his life matters more than four children burned alive at his mandate. That is especially rich, coming from a president who had vowed to codify Roe v. Wade had his mandate been extended another four years.

So I suppose the biggest takeaway from 2024 is the fact that Joe Biden still had it in him to shock me with his bizarre conception of which lives matter.

Christine Flowers is an attorney and lifelong Philadelphian. @flowerlady61

This piece was originally published in the Delco Daily Times.