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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.

Thai police get death penalty in drug war killing

A Thai court Monday sentenced three police officers to death for killing a teenager during a much-criticized drug crackdown by the government 8 years ago.

The officers were found guilty Monday of killing a 17-year-old student in Kalasin province in the northeast in 2004 and moving his body to conceal the cause of death.

The killing took place under former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government, which declared a crackdown on the drug trade to stem an influx of methamphetamine. Rights activists allege it resulted in more than 2,000 extrajudicial killings.

The Criminal Court also sentenced a former deputy police district commander to life in prison for the boy's murder and the former district commander was given a 7-year jail term for abuse of authority. One police officer was acquitted.

Few criminal cases involving alleged abuses during the Thaksin government's drug war have reached court, and fewer still have resulted in guilty verdicts.

Thailand carries out the death penalty infrequently, with just a handful of executions in the past decade.

Source: Associated Press, July 30, 2012

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