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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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Indonesia: Five Death-Row Inmates Exhaust Appeals, To Be Executed by End of Year

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President Joko
Jakarta. The Attorney General’s Office said five inmates who are currently on death row will be executed by the end of the year.

Basuni Masyarif, deputy attorney general for general crimes, said the five condemned prisoners have all exhausted their chances for appeal as well as failing to secure a pardon from President Joko Widodo.

“Their rights have all been exhausted. So it now comes to the technical aspect [of when and where],” he said.

Basuni declined to provide any further details about the inmates’ identities, saying only that two of the prisoners scheduled for execution this year are Nigerians. The five inmates are imprisoned in Banten, Riau and Jakarta.

Indonesia resumed the execution of death-row inmates in 2013 after a four-year moratorium, killing five people by firing squad. Basuni said the five were supposed to be executed last year.

Capital punishment is an option for Indonesian judges as a sentencing option for several convictions, including drug trafficking, murder, sedition and terrorism.

The law says inmates must be informed of their execution 72 hours before it is carried out by firing squad.

Basuni said the government will execute at least 10 prisoners each year, in a bid to reduce the backlog of people handed the death penalty.

As of 2013, campaigners against the death penalty recorded that there are 113 prisoners awaiting execution but since then, more than 16 have been sentenced to death by Indonesian judges.

Separately, new attorney general H.M. Prasetyo said Joko was not planning to abolish capital punishment any time soon and that the president would provide no clemency for people trafficking drugs into the country.

Joko “said he will be firm,” the attorney general said as quoted by Viva News. “We want to send a warning [to international drug syndicates] that Indonesia doesn’t want to be a stopping place, market or even producer [of narcotics].”

Human rights activists have condemned the resumption of capital punishment and demanded Joko end capital punishment.

Source: Jakarta Globe, November 28, 2014
Location: Indonesia
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