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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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Burkina Faso abolishes death penalty in new penal code

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Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso's parliament has abolished the death penalty by adopting a new penal code that strikes it as a possible sentence.

Justice Minister Rene Bagoro said Thursday that the revised document paves the way for "more credible, equitable, accessible and effective justice in the application of criminal law."

The death penalty was kept in the version of the criminal code adopted in 1996, but Burkina Faso has not imposed capital punishment recently.

Many rights movements, including Amnesty International and Catholic Church activists have pressed the government for a decade to remove it from criminal statutes.

The decision to abolish the death penalty comes amid a landmark trial this year over a failed 2015 coup. 

Two former presidential aides are among more than 80 people facing the military tribunal.

Source: The Associated Press, May 31, 2018


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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: Burkina Faso
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