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Biden Fails a Death Penalty Abolitionist’s Most Important Test

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The mystery of Joe Biden’s views about capital punishment has finally been solved. His decision to grant clemency to 37 of the 40 people on federal death row shows the depth of his opposition to the death penalty. And his decision to leave three of America’s most notorious killers to be executed by a future administration shows the limits of his abolitionist commitment. The three men excluded from Biden’s mass clemency—Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers—would no doubt pose a severe test of anyone’s resolve to end the death penalty. Biden failed that test.
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Saudi king pardons Filipino sentenced to death

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MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine government said Tuesday that it obtained a pardon from the king of Saudi Arabia sparing the life of a Filipino man who was sentenced to death for drug smuggling.

The man, an overseas worker in the conservative kingdom, was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to death by beheading after Saudi authorities seized a package that was mailed to him containing methamphetamine, said Philippine Foreign Affairs spokesman Eduardo Malaya.

The man was freed Sunday and returned to Manila late Monday. He has not been identified due to privacy concerns.

The pardoned man was the third Filipino in recent months who had been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia and released following appeals by the government in Manila.

The Philippines, which has no death penalty, unsuccessfully appealed to China last month seeking clemency for three Filipinos who were eventually executed for drug smuggling.

The plight of overseas workers is a sensitive issue in the Philippines, which has some 10 percent of its 94 million people toiling abroad to escape widespread poverty and unemployment at home.

Source: Associated Press, April 18, 2011
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