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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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UK: Queen to meet Bahrain King, despite executions and torture

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The Queen and the King of Bahrain at last year's Royal Windsor Horse Show
The Queen and the King of Bahrain at last year's Royal Windsor Horse Show.
The Queen is to sit alongside the King of Bahrain at the Royal Windsor Horse Show tomorrow – despite the Kingdom’s recent lifting of a moratorium on the death penalty, and a surge in executions of protestors.

According to reports, King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa will ‘host’ the Queen and 19 other VIPs at the annual Windsor Horse Show, in a special ‘Kingdom of Bahrain Lounge’.

The royal meeting will take place amid a crackdown on political dissent in the Kingdom. 

The Bahraini authorities recently resumed executions after a 6-year moratorium, executing three political protesters who had been sentenced to death on the strength of forced ‘confessions’. At least two more protesters could be executed at any time.

International human rights group Reprieve has found that the British government has given substantial support to Bahrain’s criminal justice system, despite human rights concerns. The UK support includes the training of hundreds of guards on Bahrain’s death row, where torture of political prisoners is rife.

Commenting, Director of Reprieve Maya Foa said:

“Make no mistake – visits like this gift the Bahraini government a royal cloak of acceptability, while the Kingdom mercilessly executes political prisoners and uses torture to extract ‘confessions’. Theresa May wants stronger UK-Gulf relations, but we must not help the Bahrainis to whitewash their appalling abuses. Instead of drafting in the Queen to cosy up to King Hamad, the UK must urgently protest Bahrain’s use of torture and executions to silence opponents.”

 The UK Foreign Office has spent over £5 million in aid money on reforming Bahrain’s human rights record since protests swept the Gulf kingdom in 2011. More information on the UK’s support for Bahrain’s prison system is available at the Reprieve website, here.

Source: Reprieve, May 11, 2017. Reprieve is an international human rights organization.

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