Hawley's conflating commutations and pardons is not unique: in Death by Design, Craig Haney found that prosecutors routinely led jurors to believe only execution would prevent defendants' eventual release, though LWOP is almost always the only alternative. academic.oup.com/book/54469
Death by Design: Capital Punishment as a Social Psychological SystemAbstract. How can otherwise normal, moral persons - as citizens, voters, and jurors - participate in a process that is designed to take the life of anotheracademic.oup.comAubrey Harris@lawyeroyer.com , who oversaw the federal pardons and commutations under President Biden (and Trump until she refused to back a political pardon), describes Biden’s decision to commute only 37 of the 40 federal death sentences he could have before leaving office.