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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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Iran: 8 hanged in Shiraz’s Adelabad Prison

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Iran Human Rights, February 19: Eight prisoners were hanged in Shiraz’s Adelabad Prison early this morning. According to the official website of the Iranian judiciary in the province of Fars, eight prisoners, among them one woman, were hanged this morning. The prisoners were all convicted of drug-related charges, said the report.

The prisoners were identified as "Lotfollah J.", "Noor Mohammad Sh.", "Abbas N.", "Hossein A.", "Parinaz M." (woman), "Hamid A.", "Abdolvahed M." and "Ali T."

According to sources in Iran, families of the prisoners were informed that the executions would be carried out on February 20, but Iranian authorities carried out the executions one day earlier without notice.

Iran Human Rights (IHR) had issued an urgent action about the scheduled execution of 12 prisoners in Shiraz. There is no information currently available on the location or condition of the remaining four prisoners. They could be executed tomorrow or in the coming days.

IHR strongly condemns today’s executions in Shiraz. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of IHR, said: "The international community must condemn the execution wave in Iran. Iranian authorities execute more than one person every day without being faced with appropriate international reactions."

Source: Iran Human Rights, Feb. 19, 2013
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