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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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Yong Vui Kong: Young Malaysian at Risk of Execution in Singapore

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Yong Vui Kong
Yong Vui Kong, a young Malaysian man on death row in Singapore, was fortunately not executed as expected in 2011. On 15 January, friends and activists risked arrest by publicly gathering to mark his upcoming birthday. The election of Singapore's new President provides a fresh opportunity to call for Yong Vui Kong's life to be saved.

On 15 January 2012, friends and supporters of Yong Vui Kong gathered at the Speakers' Corner at Hong Lim Park in Singapore to celebrate in advance his 24th birthday. Public gatherings of activists and human rights defenders are rare in Singapore, where freedom of peaceful assembly is restricted and freedom of expression limited. Despite this, around 70 people gathered that Sunday to mark Yong Vui Kong's birthday and to continue to appeal for his life to be spared.

Yong Vui Kong has only one wish for his 24th birthday: a second chance in life after spending more than half of his adult life in death row. In July 2011, a few months after Singapore's Court of Appeal rejected another appeal against Yong's sentence, he wrote:

"For me, if tomorrow is my last night, I do not have a choice either. I just have to face the fact. After all, I was the one who made a mistake and I have repented. You ask me if I would feel frightened, I think I may not be, because I am starting to become familiar with how it feels to face death, don't forgot that in this short four years, I have brushed past death many times. I have "died" many times…."

"I am also grateful that members of society are willing to forgive me, being able to live until today is my greatest fortune."

Yong's lawyer appealed against his death sentence by challenging the constitutionality of the mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking and seeking judicial review of the clemency process. The appeals were rejected in April 2011, clearing the way for Yong's execution. His last hope is clemency from the President of Singapore, who can grant this only on the advice from the Cabinet. Clemency for a death sentence in Singapore has reportedly been granted only six times since independence in 1965.

Please write immediately in English, Mandarin or your own language:

- Stop the execution of Yong Vui Kong;

- Suspend all executions and the imposition of new death sentences as a step towards total abolition of the death penalty;

- Revoke legislation establishing mandatory death sentences.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 27 February 2012 TO:

President of Singapore
His Excellency Dr. Tony Tan Keng Yam
Office of the President
Orchard Road
SINGAPORE
238823
Or fill-in the comment form at the President's office via: http://www.istana.gov.sg/content/istana/feedback.html
Salutation: Your Excellency

And copies to:

The Online Citizen
A Community of Singaporeans
(an alternative news source for Singapore)

Ambassador Chan Heng Chee, Embassy of the Republic of Singapore
3501 International Place NW, Washington DC 20008
Tel: 202 537 3100 ¦ Fax: 1 202 537 0876 ¦Email: singemb_was@sgmfa.gov.sg

Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office if sending appeals after the above date.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Under Singapore's drug laws, a defendant is automatically presumed guilty of drug trafficking in cases where possession of heroin exceeds two grams. This provision violates the defendant's right to be presumed innocent of a crime until proven guilty.

Singaporean law also makes the death penalty mandatory for trafficking more than 30 grams of heroin. In 2007, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston said, "Singapore's decision to make the death penalty mandatory keeps judges from considering all of the factors relevant to determining whether a death sentence would be permissible in a capital case."Urgent Action Network

Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/uan
Phone: 202.509.8193
Fax: 202.675.8566

Source: Amnesty International, January 18, 2012

An online petition urging Singapore's president to commute Yong's death sentence can be signed here.

Related articles:
Death Penalty News: Yong Vui Kong - Last letter from death row ...
Jul 11, 2011
YONG VUI KONG, a Sabahan, was sentenced in November 2009 to death for drug trafficking. He was 19. On April 4, Yong lost his final appeal against a mandatory death sentence. He will be executed soon unless he is ...
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Death Penalty News: Yong Vui Kong: The boy behind the glass panel
Jan 11, 2012
It was the day he came face to face with Yong Vui Kong for the first time. Yong is a Malaysian citizen who has been sentenced to death by hanging in Singapore for carrying heroin. He is currently awaiting clemency from the...
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Death Penalty News: Yong Vui Kong: The Tenth Letter - Drugs and ...
Jun 28, 2011
Yong Vui Kong has exhausted all his appeals. His last hope rests on presidential clemency. Please click on the photo to sign a petition urging Singapore's President to commute Yong's death sentence to a prison sentence.
http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/
Location: Singapore
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