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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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Appeals Court Affirms Michigan Death Sentence

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DETROIT (AP) - An appeals court on Tuesday upheld the conviction and rare federal death sentence of a western Michigan man who was accused of killing a woman in a national forest in 1997 before she could testify against him in a rape case.

Michigan outlawed the death penalty in 1846. But the victim was killed on federal property, which put the case in federal court and allowed the government to seek the ultimate punishment for Marvin Gabrion.

Gabrion’s conviction and sentence were affirmed, 12-4, by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

A key part of Gabrion’s appeal was that his attorneys were barred from making certain argument to jurors during the sentencing phase in 2002. They couldn’t try to sway the jury against death by saying he would only face a life sentence if the trial had been in state court.

But the appeals court said Michigan’s lack of a certain punishment is not a mitigating factor to argue in a death penalty case.

Gabrion, 59, is in federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Source: AP, May 28, 2013
Location: Michigan, USA
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