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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.

Family to raise Dh4.58m to atone accident death in Saudi Arabia

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Zapanta needs blood money by Wednesday to be spared death penalty.

Manila: A Filipino family will raise P55 million (Dh4.58 million) to serve as blood money to atone for the killing of a Sudanese national in Saudi Arabia in 2009, a local paper said.

“I have prepared a letter to [Saudi Arabia’s] King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz to ask him to intercede in the case of Joselito Lidasan Zapanta whose family is raising the blood money which was demanded by the family of the victim, Salah Imam Ibrahim,” Vice President Binay told the Philippine Star.

Zapanta, who was convicted for the murder of a Sudanese national and jailed in 2009, needs the blood money by November 14 to be spared from execution.

A delay in the implementation of Zapanta’s execution will allow his family to raise the blood money, Binay said, who quoted his letter as saying, “I join President Aquino in seeking your intercession in the deferment of the qisas sentence imposed on Zapanta.”

The death sentence will be carried out if Zapanta’s family fail to raise the blood money, said Binay, adding, “Under Saudi Arabia’s law, in this kind of crime, the family’s decision prevails.”

A representative from Manila’s foreign affairs department will personally hand over the letter to the king in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, said Binay.

At the same time, the Philippine government has been extending financial and legal assistance to Zapanta since 2009, said Binay.

About nine million overseas Filipino workers (OFws) are based worldwide. The number represents 10 per cent of Philippine population.

The OFWs sent $20 billion to their relatives in the Philippines in 2011.

Some OFWs are languishing in jails due to crimes such as murder and drug trafficking.

Source: GulfNews, November 13, 2012
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