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Activists Call on President Biden to End the Federal Death Penalty Before Leaving Office

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A conversation with Death Penalty Action Co-founder and Executive Director Abe Bonowitz. Now that Joe Biden is a lame duck president, activists are holding him accountable to make good on his promise to end the federal death penalty during his remaining six months as president. Biden’s election campaign in 2020 had pledged to end the federal death penalty and incentivize the remaining 27 states that still allow executions to do the same. While he made history as the first president in the United States to openly oppose the death penalty, there has been no movement to actually end federal executions during his nearly four years in office.

France opposes restoration of death penalty in the Philippines

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15th World Day Against the Death Penalty
France on Wednesday voiced its concern on a plan by the Philippine government to restore death penalty, which it called an "unjust, inhumane and ineffective" punishment.

The French government made the statement on the occasion of the 15th World Day Against the Death Penalty and the 40th anniversary of the last execution in France.

"France is...concerned about the determination of Philippine authorities to reintroduce the death penalty, following its abolition in 2006," it said in a statement sent by its embassy in Manila.

It also expressed concern on the continued use of the death penalty, notably in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq and the United States.

France also took note of the resumption of executions in Nigeria, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan, but praised efforts of other countries, such as Mongolia, Gambia, Benin, Nauru and Guinea to abolish death penalty.

"France is opposed to the death penalty everywhere and under all circumstances," the European Union-member nation said as it called on states that still impose the death penalty to establish a moratorium toward its definitive abolition.

President Rodrigo Duterte has severely criticized the EU for opposing his policy to reintroduce capital punishment for drug dealers and heinous crimes.

Duterte, known for using strong language against his critics, earlier threatened to hang EU officials for their opposition to death penalty and lambasted them for intervening in the country's domestic policies.

The status of the proposed revival of the capital punishment law, however, remains unclear as the House of Representatives, which approved its version of the death penalty bill last March, and the Senate excluded it from the list of priority measures for the 17th Congress.

Source: GMA News, October 10, 2017


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Location: France
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