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Before it is too late Biden must turn words into deeds on the death penalty

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Joe Biden’s Catholic faith should inspire him to stop the federal death penalty in its tracks In the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election, opponents of the death penalty are mounting a campaign to convince President Biden to commute the sentences of everyone on federal death row. Doing so would be a vindication not only of his announced anti-death penalty position but also of his Catholic faith .

Switzerland: Death penalty initiative not quite dead

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Just days after it was withdrawn, the initiative to reinstate the death penalty in Switzerland is making news again.

Marcel Graf, the initiative committee’s spokesman, has called on Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf to ensure that capital criminals are tried and sentenced within a year.

In an interview with the Aarau-based Sonntag newspaper, Graf said that he would pass the initiative on to others if the justice minister was unable to promise speedier punishment.

Graf said that a huge lobby was interested in reviving the initiative and that he had received hundreds of emails. Many people mailed in petition forms full of signatures.

Widmer-Schlumpf is against the death penalty, but has said that she can understand the frustration of the committee members, who are related to a victim.

Switzerland struck capital punishment from its criminal statutes in 1942.

Source: swissinfo.ch, August 30, 2010
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