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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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New Hampshire: Death penalty suspension coming up for Senate vote

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New Hampshire's scenic Mount Washington Valley
New Hampshire's scenic Mount Washington Valley
New Hampshire's state Senate is poised to take up a bill that would effectively end use the death penalty in the state without flat-out repealing it.

Republican Sen. Kevin Avard is the primary sponsor of a bipartisan measure to "suspend" use of the death penalty until "methods exist to ensure that the death penalty cannot be imposed on an innocent person." 

New Hampshire is the only state in New England with the death penalty still on the books, and efforts to repeal it in 2014 deadlocked in the 24-member Senate.

The vote in Thursday's Senate session will be close, likely with 1 or 2 votes determining the outcome. 

Not all senators could be reached Friday by The Associated Press for a full vote count.

Source: Associated Press, February 29, 2016

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Location: New Hampshire, USA
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