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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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CHINA DEFENDS USE OF DEATH PENALTY

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Sentenced to death in China
April 15, 2008: China defended its use of the death penalty and said it planned to continue "prudent" use of capital punishment.

"At present, there are more countries with the death penalty than countries without the death penalty," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in response to a report by Amnesty International, which said China still executed far more people than any other nation last year.

"It is not the right time for China to abolish the death penalty, to abolish it would not be acceptable to the Chinese people," Jiang told reporters.
"We take prudent measures to ensure that the death penalty only applies to small numbers of criminals who committed serious crimes," she said.

Jiang did not answer a question asking whether China would address calls for greater transparency. Beijing treats death penalty figures as a state secret.

Source: Earth Times, Ap, 15/04/2008
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