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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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A restaurant in Tokyo is serving the last meals of famous death row inmates

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Chim↑Pom— a Japanese guerilla art collective— has opened a pop-up restaurant serving the last meals requested by famous death row inmates.
In Tokyo's red light district neighborhood of Kabukichi, Shinjuku, Chim↑Pom— a Japanese guerilla art collective— has opened a pop-up restaurant serving the last meals requested by famous death row inmates.

Dubbed the Ningen Restaurant (translated as "human restaurant"), the pop-up, which operates until October 28, offers meals requested by convicted criminals such as Gary Mark Gilmore before they were executed. Gilmore, a serial criminal, was convicted on counts of armed robbery, assault, and two murders he had committed in Utah. His case gained international attention after he demanded to receive the death sentence for his crimes.

RELATED: “A Year of Killing” - A Photographer's Project

For his last meal, Gilmore opted for a hamburger, mashed potatoes, a hard-boiled egg, and multiple shots of whiskey. According to Munchies, Gilmore requested Jack Daniels, though Chim↑Pom's version uses Maker's Mark instead.

Chim↑Pom reportedly features the last meals of other criminals including John Wayne Gacy, a Chicago-based serial killer and rapist, who requested to have a pound of strawberries, a bucket of KFC chicken, fries, and a dozen fried shrimp for his last meal.

RELATED: Big picture: Death Row Prisoners’ Last Meals 

The restaurant also serves the last meal of Joseph Paul Jernigan, a criminal from Texas convicted of murder who donated his corpse to the Texas Anatomy Board at the suggestion of the prison chaplain. Without his knowledge, his body was later integral in the establishment of a federal government project meant to digitalize the human body, called the Visible Human Project.

Chim↑Pom's recreation of Jernigan's last requested meal includes two cheeseburgers, a salad, and an iced tea. However, Jernigan reportedly refused to eat his actual meal when the time came.

RELATED: 'Last Meals', a series of oil paintings by death penalty artist Kate MacDonald 

A recreation of Gary Gilmore's last meal.
The two-week pop-up is part of a larger art installation by Chim↑Pom, featuring artwork by Austrian avant-garde artist Hermann Nitsch and performances from local artists such as Aida Makoto and shock art performers Dengenki Network.

Based out of the Kabukicho Book Center, the pop-up is the building's last event before being demolished following an acquisition by a Tokyo-based property developer that operates the nearby famous Robot Restaurant.

The "body-based" theme of the pop-up and the other exhibitions are inspired by the Kabukicho neighborhood's history as a place where, according to Chim↑Pom's website, "people used the sex work industry, bodies, and desire as weapons or ways of consumption to survive."

The project isn't the first of its kind. In 2017, photographer Henry Hargreaves achieved coverage for his photographic recreation of famous death row meals. Hargreaves is a critic of the death penalty and created his photo series following news that Texas was rescinding criminals' ability to make last meal requests.

A representative for Chim↑Pom did not immediately reply to INSIDER's request for comment.

Source: thisisinsider.com, Anay Katyal, October 26, 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: Tokyo, Japan
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