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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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Unspeakable wrongness of death penalty

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Holding cells at Huntsville's Unit, TX.
Texas plans an execution where victims have turned the other cheek.

The death penalty is not something Australians often turn their minds to, except when one of our citizens faces execution overseas. But over the last week, a story has been unfolding in the US and Europe that is worth telling. Mark Stroman is on death row in Texas after being found guilty of murder and is to be executed tomorrow. Stroman's story and that of his victim, Rais Bhuiyan, is one replete with both horror and hope. Above all, it exemplifies the dignity of forgiveness.

I have worked with prisoners on death row with Reprieve, an organisation opposed to the death penalty. I learnt two important things from my experience. The first is that many death row inmates have unbearably sad stories to tell. Most have a history of child abuse, neglect and poverty. The cycle of violence that they are born into repeats itself. The criminal justice system has plenty of time for victims, until they become perpetrators.

Secondly, in spite of the serious crimes of which they stand convicted, these people are overwhelmingly remorseful, dedicated to improving themselves and doing what they can to make up for their misdeeds. Often prison offers them a first sense of stability, if it can be called that. Many seize this chance to work hard and reflect on their lives. As a prisoner explained to me: the cruellest injustices of the death penalty is that by the time the sentence is carried out, the person is completely different to the one who committed the crime.


Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, July 19, 2011

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Location: Huntsville, Texas, États-Unis
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