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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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Yemen: Islamist gunmen "execute" suspected homosexual

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It is the sixth such murder since the start of the year

Aden: Gunmen have shot dead a Yemeni man in the south of the country because they suspected he was homosexual, police have said.

One of two men on a motorbike opened fire at the man in his twenties late on Thursday outside his house in Huta, the capital of Lahij province, killing him on the spot.

Police said the attackers, presumed Islamist militants, escaped after the killing, the sixth such murder since the start of the year.

Similar killings in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation’s provinces of Abyan and Aden have been blamed on an Al Qaida-affiliated group, Ansar Al Sharia.

For the past year, Ansar Al Sharia has imposed Islamic law in areas of Abyan where it still holds sway.

Its so-called courts have tried and condemned to death several people accused of different crimes. Others have had hands amputated after being “convicted” of theft.

After an army offensive in May 2012 ousted the militants from areas they controlled, they holed up in mountainous regions of south and southeast Yemen.

From there they have launched regular attacks, mainly targeting the security forces.

Source: Agence France-Presse, September 27, 2013
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