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.
Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
Kuwait: first executions in five years
Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
Published
A Saudi death-row inmate smokes his last cigarette before his execution
in Kuwait on April 1, 2013.
Manama: Kuwaiti authorities on Monday morning executed three men sentenced to death in separate murder cases.
The Pakistani, Saudi and Bidoon (stateless resident) were executed in the Central Prison at 8am in the presence of the public prosecutor and delegates from the justice and interior ministries, Al Watan site reported.
Each of the three men was allowed a final visit by their families before they were kept separately in different rooms prior to the execution, it said.
The Saudi, identified by local daily Al Rai as Faisal Al Utaibi, was sentenced to die after he was found guilty of deliberately killing his friend while the Pakistani, Pervez Ghulam, was executed for strangling a couple to death.
The stateless resident, Dhaher Al Utaibi, was sentenced to death for killing his wife, son and daughter and attempting to kill another daughter. He reportedly claimed he was the Awaited Mahdi, the 12th Imam in Shiite belief, expected to emerge from hiding and appear at the world’s end to establish a reign of peace and righteousness.
News about the executions on Sunday triggered a wave of comments on the internet.
However, allegations that the executions would be carried out live on Kuwait Television were strongly denied by the information ministry.
Mohammad Al Duaij, the head of the executive prosecution, said that the executions were endorsed by the Emir last week after the court of cassation upheld the death sentence against each of the murderers.
“The April 1 date was selected by the public prosecutor,” he said, according to Al Rai.
He attributed the presence of journalists at the hanging to help deter the occurrence of crimes.
“There are around 48 people sentenced to the death penalty in Kuwait who have used up all their recourses. They are now on death row, but we are waiting for the endorsement of the Emir,” he said.
The last execution in Kuwait was carried out in May 2007.
In two videos circulating on social networks and authenticated by the site Verify.sy, the minister, a former Islamic judge in the Idlib region then under the control of al-Nosra, supervised the killing of women accused of "prostitution." The images are chilling. In one video, a man with a thick beard, wearing a chechia and qami, the traditional Muslim dress, pronounces a death sentence “for corruption and prostitution” next to a woman in a black niqab , on her knees. In another, the same man appears next to a woman also in a full veil, on the ground, who implores clemency. A fighter recites verses from the Quran and claims that there is “proof” that she committed adultery and prostitution, thus spreading “corruption on earth” . A third man then draws a handgun and shoots her in the head.
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.
In an unusual move, two prisoners who are among the 37 federal inmates whose death sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden in December have refused to sign paperwork accepting his clemency action Two federal inmates, Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, are refusing to accept outing US President Joe Biden’s decision to commute their death sentences to life imprisonment without parole. Their refusal comes after Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates last month, sparing them from execution.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has scheduled its fourth execution by nitrogen gas as critics continue to argue the new method needs additional scrutiny. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday set a Feb. 6 execution date for Demetrius Terrence Frazier, 52. Her office said the execution will be carried out by nitrogen gas. It is the state’s first scheduled execution of 2025. Frazier was convicted of killing Pauline Brown while burglarizing her Birmingham apartment in 1991.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee on Jan. 9 released a redacted version of its newly completed execution manual, blacking out sporadic job titles and team names throughout the notably trimmed-down document that now provides vague guidelines and omits previously detailed steps on carrying out the death penalty. The Tennessee Department of Correction initially refused to hand over the manual when pressed by The Associated Press, arguing that the state had to keep the entire manual secret to protect the identities of the executioner and other people involved.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man convicted of murdering a husband and wife during a fishing trip nearly 30 years ago is set to be executed next month in the state’s first scheduled execution of 2025. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant for James Ford on Friday. Ford is slated to be put to death on Feb. 13 at Florida State Prison.
Politicians like Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton project an image of being tough on crime, but they’re also tough on those who are innocent, per a year-end report from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. The annual report tells the stories of several individuals who faced execution in 2024 despite evidence that they were not guilty of the crime for which they were convicted. Three of the eight people the state planned to execute this year tried to present evidence of innocence.
Some 102 men were executed by the Congolese government in the past week, and 70 more are set to be executed, the country’s minister of justice said Sunday in a statement to the Associated Press. It said the men, aged 18 to 35, were armed robbers and “urban bandits,” locally known as Kulunas, who were executed in northwest Congo at Angenga prison. Forty-five were killed in late December, and the remaining 57 were executed within the last 48 hours. A flight of 70 more people from Kinshasa has arrived at Angenga, but the government hasn’t commented on the status of the prisoners.
DADU: Jamshoro’s additional sessions court on Friday sentenced a man and his son to death after they were found guilty of murdering a young woman and her father in the name of honour. The convicts Ali Mohammad Rind and his son Munir alias Farooq Rind had reportedly brutally killed 50-year-old Meer Rind and his 18-year-old daughter Ms Nimani in Joghi Khan Rind village near Sehwan in 2023.
WASHINGTON — An appeals court in Washington on Thursday temporarily halted a deal between the alleged mastermind of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, as well as other co-defendants, and the US Department of Justice at the request of the Biden administration, reported German news agency dpa. The court issued a temporary stay – a provisional suspension of the proceedings – which pauses all steps related to the proposed agreement until a final decision is made.
