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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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Iran: At Least 4 Executed For Drug Offences

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Execution in Iran
2 of the 4 prisoners who were transferred to solitary confinement on Wednesday 27. April were hanged yesterday morning in the Central Prison of Karaj (west of Tehran). 

According to close sources these prisoners were identified as "Mehdi Bagherzadeh" and "Esmaeil Tanabi".

Iran Human Rights (IHR) had reported about the transfer of 4 prisoners (2 brothers) to solitary confinement in preparation for execution on April 27. 

All the 4 prisoners were sentenced to death for possession and trafficking of 8 kilograms of heroin in one case.

Mehdi Bagherzadeh and his younger brother Abbas Bagherzadeh were the 2 brothers who were scheduled to be executed. 

Mehdi was executed while Abbas was together with another prisoner identified as "Farhad Esmaeili" were returned to their wards. 

Sources have reported that they remain under imminent danger of execution.

Another member of the Bagherzadeh family (Isa Bagherzadeh, another brother) was hanged 5 months ago.

Source: Iran Human Rights, April 29, 2016

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Location: Karaj, Alborz, Iran
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