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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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THAILAND. ROYAL MERCY FOR THOUSANDS OF JAIL INMATES

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December 10, 2007: convicted wife killer Wisut Boonkasemsanti and former public health minister Rakkiat Sukthana are among 25,000 prisoners whose sentences have been reduced or ended under a royal pardon given by His Majesty the King to mark his 80th birthday. Other infamous prisoners benefiting from the pardon include Maj Chalermchai Matchaklam.

The pardon frees inmates with less than one year of their sentence remaining, Corrections Department director-general Wanchai Roujanawong said. Chosen prisoners who received the death sentence have it commuted to life, while those with life sentences have their terms reduced to 40 years.

Wisut, a gynaecologist, was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in July for murdering his wife Phassaporn in 2001, dismembering her body and flushing the parts down the toilet in a highly publicised case. Maj Chalermchai also received a death sentence for killing then-Yasothon governor Preena Leepattanapan in 2001.

Source: Bangkok Post, 12/12/2007
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