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Activists Call on President Biden to End the Federal Death Penalty Before Leaving Office

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A conversation with Death Penalty Action Co-founder and Executive Director Abe Bonowitz. Now that Joe Biden is a lame duck president, activists are holding him accountable to make good on his promise to end the federal death penalty during his remaining six months as president. Biden’s election campaign in 2020 had pledged to end the federal death penalty and incentivize the remaining 27 states that still allow executions to do the same. While he made history as the first president in the United States to openly oppose the death penalty, there has been no movement to actually end federal executions during his nearly four years in office.

India: Patil decisions on death terms under scrutiny

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Former President Pratibha Patil
Former President Pratibha Patil
Former President Pratibha Patil's decision to commute death sentence of 5 prisoners in child rape cases has come under judicial scrutiny with the Supreme Court on Monday issuing notice to the Centre on a plea seeking to set aside the commutation.

A bench headed by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam agreed to hear a public interest litigation (PIL) questioning the then President's decision to commute death penalty in the cases of extreme brutality.

The petitioner Pinki Virani, a journalist, had said that out of 35 cases in which death sentence was commuted by Ms Patil, 5 cases pertained to brutal child rape. It contended that the relief should not have been granted by the President in those cases.

The petitioner submitted that these were shocking cases and death sentence should not have been revoked. "We need to tell the government that this is not the way to exercise the power. We are not happy with the present state of affairs," senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, appearing for the petitioner, told a bench of justices Ranjana P. Desai and Ranjan Gogoi.

After brief hearing, the bench agreed to adjudicate the matter and issued notices to the Centre and ministry of home affairs.

Source: The Asian Age, November 19, 2013
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