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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.

Saudi Arabia: Canadian sentenced to death

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March 3, 2008: Mohamed Kohail, a Canadian citizen jailed in Saudi Arabia on murder charges, was convicted and sentenced to a public beheading.

Kohail is to be beheaded in public but has 80 days to appeal the ruling. Kohail "got nine court sessions, each court session lasted 10 minutes," a local radio station reported. A spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Department in Ottawa confirmed that Kohail had been convicted and faces the death penalty.

"We are deeply disappointed at the verdict handed down by Saudi authorities," said Bernard Nguyen, a Foreign Affairs spokesman. A family friend claimed the court ignored evidence that would have cleared Kohail.

He also said Kohail's lawyers were repeatedly denied access to the courtroom. Kohail was allegedly involved in a schoolyard brawl that left one person dead. He was arrested along with his brother, Sultan, last spring and imprisoned in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The younger brother's fate remains unclear.

Sources: The Star, 03/03/2008
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