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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.

'Penal Reform International' launches competition for best journalism investigating death penalty and life (or long-term) imprisonment

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The death penalty remains in many parts of the globe, while around the world people are imprisoned for decades at a time. While trials, sentences and executions often make the headlines, other features of the death penalty and life imprisonment are largely unknown.

The focus could be on such subjects as individual stories, investigations into prison conditions or wider considerations about the laws and regulations about the death penalty.

We are looking for entries published anywhere in the world between 1 April 2013 and 30 April 2014, in any media format, in Arabic, English or Russian.

Winners will receive an expenses-paid two-day trip to London in October 2014, including a one-day visit to the offices of The Guardian newspaper. There they will be able to see the paper being put together, meet journalists working on relevant issues and receive advice and feedback on their articles. Winning articles will also be published by PRI on its website.


Full details of the competition and its terms and conditions are provided below:


This competition is taking place as part of PRI’s multi-regional project ‘Progressive abolition of the death penalty and the implementation of humane alternative sanctions after a moratorium or abolition‘, funded by the European Union (EU) through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) and in partnership with the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI).

Entries can be submitted to info@penalreform.org.

Penal Reform International is a non-profit association, registered in the Netherlands.
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Activists Call on President Biden to End the Federal Death Penalty Before Leaving Office

Published
Image
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.
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South Carolina executes Freddie Owens

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South Carolina inmate dies by lethal injection in state’s first execution in 13 years COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina put inmate Freddie Owens to death Friday as the state restarted executions after an unintended 13-year pause because prison officials couldn’t get the drugs needed for lethal injections. Owens was convicted of the 1997 killing of a Greenville convenience store clerk during a robbery. While on trial, Owens killed a person incarcerated at a county jail. His confession to that attack was read to two different juries and a judge who all sentenced him to death.
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Texas executes Travis Mullis

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Texas man who waived his right to appeal death sentence is executed for killing infant son HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas man who had waived his right to appeal his death sentence was put to death Tuesday evening for killing his 3-month-old son more than 16 years ago, one of five executions scheduled within a week’s time in the U.S. Travis Mullis, 38, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville and was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m. CDT. He was condemned for stomping to death his son Alijah in January 2008.
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Second-ever nitrogen gas execution in US set to take place in Alabama

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(NEW YORK) — Alabama is set to perform the second-ever nitrogen gas execution in the United States on Thursday. Alan Eugene Miller, 59, was sentenced to death for the 1999 murders of his then-coworkers Lee Holdbrooks and Christoper Scott Yancy, and his former supervisor Terry Lee Jarvis. Miller was to be executed in September 2022 via lethal injection, but it was called off after officials had trouble inserting an intravenous line to administer the fatal drugs and were concerned they would not be able to do so before the death warrant expired.
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Alabama has executed Alan Eugene Miller, the 2nd inmate known to die by nitrogen gas

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Alan Eugene Miller was executed Thursday evening in Alabama, state officials said, making him the 2nd inmate known to die by nitrogen hypoxia, a controversial method critics say is tantamount to torture. Miller, 59, who was sentenced to death in 2000 for the 1999 killings of 3 men, was pronounced dead at 6:38 p.m. at a prison in Atmore, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said at a news conference.
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Missouri executes Marcellus Williams

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BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man convicted of breaking into a woman’s home and repeatedly stabbing her was executed Tuesday over the objections of the victim’s family and the prosecutor, who wanted the death sentence commuted to life in prison. Marcellus Williams, 55, was convicted in the 1998 killing of Lisha Gayle, who was stabbed during the burglary of her suburban St. Louis home.
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Alabama opposes defense attorneys’ request to film nitrogen execution

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The state of Alabama asked a judge Friday to deny defense lawyers’ request to film the next execution by nitrogen gas in an attempt to help courts evaluate whether the new method is humane. The request to record the scheduled Sept. 26 execution of Alan Miller was filed by attorneys for another man facing the death penalty, Carey Dale Grayson. They are challenging the constitutionality of the method after Alabama carried out the nation’s first execution by nitrogen gas in January, when Kenneth Smith was put to death.
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Japan criticized as treating death-row inmates 'inhumanely'

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TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The inhumane treatment of inmates who have been sentenced to death has come under increased scrutiny in Japan, with legal experts criticizing authorities for giving little to no warning of an impending execution and denying those on death row basic human contact. Japan has no established regulations regarding how much warning an inmate on death row should be given before they are sent to the gallows, but anecdotal evidence shows they were informed the day before at least until the 1970s. Currently, inmates are notified just one or two hours before they are hanged.
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There are 5 executions set over a week's span in the US — that's the most in decades

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On Tuesday, Texas is scheduled to execute a man with a long history of mental illness who has repeatedly sought to waive his right to appeal his death sentence. Death row inmates in five states are scheduled to be put to death in the span of one week, an unusually high number of executions that defies a yearslong trend of decline in both the use and support of the death penalty in the U.S.
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