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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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Japan Executes 3 for Murders

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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 17, 2008

TOKYO (AP) — Japan executed three murderers on Tuesday, including a serial killer, Tsutomu Miyazaki, who mutilated the bodies of four young girls in the late 1980s.

Mr. Miyazaki, 45, was hanged at a detention center in Tokyo, Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama said.

Mr. Miyazaki had burned the body of one 4-year-old and left her bones on her parents’ doorstep. He also wrote letters to the media and victims’ families taunting the police. Japanese newspaper reports said he ate part of the hand of one of his victims and drank her blood.

The two others executed Tuesday were Shinji Mutsuda, 45, who had been on death row for the murder and robbery of two people, and Yoshio Yamasaki, 73, who was convicted of killing two people for the insurance money, Kyodo News agency reported.

Japan, one of the few industrialized countries with capital punishment, has now hanged 13 death-row inmates in the past six months.

Source: The New York Times

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Read more