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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.

Fresh legal bid underway for Bali Nine duo

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Andrew Chan (left), Myuran Sukumaran (right)
A NEW effort to halt the momentum behind Indonesia's plans to execute Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran has begun.

INDONESIAN lawyers for the pair on Wednesday lodged a challenge of President Joko Widodo's decision to deny the pair clemency without looking at their cases.

Mr Joko says he won't succumb to outside pressure to show mercy to drug offenders on death row.
But a lawyer for the Bali Nine duo, Ponti Azani, says this blanket treatment of drugs cases is a violation of several regulations, which require the president to consider in detail the conditions of the prisoners seeking clemency.

He hoped authorities would halt their plans to execute the men this month, pending the administrative court's decision.

"We will notify the prosecutor so that they can consider, that at this moment, there's another legal effort on that presidential decree that rejects Myuran and Andrew's clemency."

The lawyers' aim was for Mr Joko to consider the cases of Chan and Sukumaran - who are considered Kerobokan jail's model prisoners - on their merits.

Mr Ponti encouraged the president to visit the prison and see their work to rehabilitate themselves and others first hand.

"If the president could go there, I'm sure it would appeal to his humanity because personally, I've seen over the 10 years that there have been significant changes in Myuran and Andrew," he said.


Source: news.com.au, February 12, 2015 (local time)

Report an error, an omission: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com
Location: Bali, Indonesia
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