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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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Texas trying to replenish execution drug supply

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Death House, 'The Walls' Unit, Huntsville, Texas
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- Texas prison officials are scurrying to find a supplier to replenish a dwindling inventory of execution drugs.

Their search is taking place amid a pending court order that would no longer allow the state to protect the supplier's identity.

The nation's most active death penalty state has enough pentobarbital for executions scheduled this week and next week. But prison officials don't yet know about lethal injections of four others scheduled for April.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice Executive Director Brad Livingston says it's a challenge facing not only his agency but prison departments nationwide.

Texas officials have cited security concerns for withholding the name of its execution drug supplier. 

A judge in Austin last year ordered the name disclosed, but state attorneys are appealing that ruling in the courts.

Source: The Associated Press, March 10, 2015

Report an error, an omission: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com
Location: Texas, USA
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