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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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Oklahoma executes Garry Thomas Allen

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Garry Thomas Allen
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma inmate who was convicted of the 1986 murder of his fiancee was executed Tuesday evening despite claims that he was insane and ineligible for the death penalty.

Garry Thomas Allen, 56, was given a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in McAlester for fatally shooting 24-year-old Lawanna Gail Titsworth, outside an Oklahoma City day care.

Allen appeared confused moments after prison officials lifted a curtain separating the death chamber from witnesses. Slurring his words, Allen spoke for 2 minutes in an address that mentioned both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. His execution was held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, 1 hour before polls closed in Oklahoma.

"Obama won 2 out of 3 counties," Allen said. "It's going to be a very close race."

At 6:02 p.m., a prison official announced that the execution was about to begin.

"What? Huh?" Allen said.

When the drugs began to flow, Allen grunted several times and wiggled his feet as the life slowly left him. He was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. 

A judge halted Allen's original May 19, 2005, execution after a psychological examination at the prison indicated Allen had mental problems. Three years later, a jury rejected Allen's claims he should not be put to death.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board had voted in April 2005 to recommend that Allen's death sentence be commuted to life without parole. That clemency recommendation wasn't acted on until this year, when Republican Gov. Mary Fallin denied it.

Allen becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Oklahoma, and the 101st overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990.

Allen becomes the 36th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1313th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977, when Gary Gilmore was put to death in the Utah State Penitentiary by a firing squad. 

Source: AP, Rick Halperin, November 6, 2012
Location: Oklahoma
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