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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 death-row inmate Ivan Cantu loses Supreme Court appeal

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Ivan Cantu
Ivan Cantu
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review an appeal from a Dallas man who shot and killed his cousin in a botched 2000 robbery and is now on death row.

Ivan Cantu, 44, had argued that his legal help during his 2001 trial was ineffective and didn't present evidence that proved his innocence.

The Supreme Court made no comment Monday regarding its decision.

Cantu was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death on Oct. 16, 2001, for the slaying of his cousin, James Mosqueda, 27, in Far North Dallas.

He also was indicted in the slaying of Amy Kitchen, 22, Mosqueda's girlfriend.

During the trial, one of Cantu's former girlfriends, Amy Boettcher, testified that he had told her of his plans to kill Mosqueda and showed her the bodies after the act.

Boettcher also said that when she saw Cantu on the night of the murder, his socks and pants were bloody. Tests showed that the blood on his clothing belonged to Mosqueda.

Additionally, police found Mosqueda's car at Cantu's apartment complex. Investigators also found the murder weapon — with Cantu's fingerprints on the magazine — at the home of another of Cantu's ex-girlfriends.

Sources: Dallas News, Associated Press, June 19, 2017

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