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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.

Japan: many death-row inmates on meds

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Execution chamber
at Tokyo's Detention Center
December 30, 2011: Nearly half of death row inmates in Japan are on full-time medication for mental stress, the Justice Ministry said.

A ministry official said 56 of 124 inmates on death row have complained of psychological symptoms such as insomnia and hallucinations and have been continuously treated with drugs, The Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

Such symptoms can occur because of confinement in closed spaces for a long period of time, and since some inmates have been detained for more than 30 years it is suspected the symptoms are the result of their lengthy detention, experts said.

Under Japanese law, if a death row inmate is diagnosed as insane, the justice minister will order the suspension of the execution.

However, a high-ranking ministry official has said no inmates currently on death row have been so diagnosed.

"As far as we could tell, there are no death row inmates who are insane," the official said.

Source: UPI, December 30, 2011

Related article:
Death Penalty News: Japan death row 'breeds insanity'
Sep 10, 2009
According to Japan's code of criminal procedure, if a person condemned to death is in a state of insanity, the execution shall be stayed by the justice minister. But, Amnesty says, executions of inmates who exhibit signs of...
http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/
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