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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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Delaware pardons board recommends commutation for killer facing Jan. 20 execution

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Robert Gattis
The state Board of Pardons is recommending that Gov. Jack Markell grant clemency to a man facing execution later this week for the 1990 murder of his former girlfriend.

The state is scheduled to execute Robert Gattis, 49, by lethal injection on Jan. 20.

He asked the pardons board at a hearing last week to recommend that the Democratic governor commute the death sentence he received in 1992 to life in prison without parole.

Markell has declined to say whether he would grant commutation if the board recommended it.

John Deckers, an attorney for Gattis, said he was delighted by the board's decision.

"We're very happy, very pleased with the resolution," Deckers said.

Gattis told the board that he was sorry for killing Slay and that it was not an accident, but that he hoped officials would spare his life.

Under state law, a favorable recommendation from a majority of board members is required for Markell to commute Gattis' death sentence. The board is chaired by the lieutenant governor.

The other members are the state treasurer, state auditor, secretary of state and the head judge of the Court of Chancery.

Gattis has exhausted state and federal court appeals.

His lawyers told the board that commutation was appropriate because the courts have never considered sexual abuse Gattis says he suffered as a child.

Prosecutors questioned the veracity of the sexual abuse claims at the hearing. They also pointed out that Gattis maintained until recently that the killing of Shirley Slay, 27, was an accident.

"I am not the Robert Gattis who killed Shirley Slay. That's not who I am," said Gattis, insisting he's a changed man.

Members of Slay's family said they cannot forgive Gattis for her death, or for the years of physical abuse she suffered at Gattis' hands before he shot her between the eyes at close range.

Source: The Republic, January 15, 2012

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