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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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Mississippi: Appeals court blocks Simon execution

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A federal appeal court has stopped the scheduled execution of Mississippi death row inmate Robert Simon Jr. (left)

The 3-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans gave no immediate reason for its decision, which came hours before Simon was to be put to death by lethal injection. The execution had been set for 6 p.m.

Simon was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1990 slayings of Carl Parker; Parker’s wife, Bobbie Jo; and their 12-year-old son, Gregory. The killings occurred a few hours after the family had returned to their rural Quitman County home from church services.

Simon also was sentenced to life in prison for the killing of 9-year-old Charlotte Parker, daughter of the slain couple.

Source: AP, May 24, 2011


Court stays Mississippi execution

Mississippi State Penitentiary
(Reuters) - The scheduled execution in Mississippi on Tuesday of a man who killed a family of four in 1990 has been stayed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, according to a court document.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections said it was waiting for the court's opinion, and was ready to carry out the orders of the court.

Further details were not immediately available.

The lethal injection scheduled for 6 p.m. local time would have been the third execution in the state this month.

Robert Simon Jr., 47, and an accomplice robbed and murdered a couple and their two children in Marks, Mississippi, the night of February 2, 1990, according to corrections officials.

They shot all four family members and cut off the husband's left ring finger to steal his wedding ring, officials said.

A passing motorist saw the family's house burning, and their bodies were found inside.

Simon confessed to the killings after his arrest, officials said. Found guilty of all four murders, he received one life sentence and three death sentences.

His accomplice, Anthony Carr, also was convicted of four counts of capital murder and is currently on death row.

Simon's execution was to be carried out at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman.

Eighteen people have been executed in the United States so far this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Source: Reuters, May 24, 2011
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