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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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President Lungu has commuted more death penalties to life imprisonment than any Zambian President

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Lusaka
President Edgar Lungu has commuted more death penalties to life imprisonment than any other serving Zambian President.

Justice Minister Given Lubinda said this decision not to sign death penalties has earned Zambia's reputation internationally as an abolitionist country with regards to implementing the death penalty.

Mr. Lubinda was speaking in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia yesterday when he transited to Rome to attend a conference on the 10th Anniversary of the campaign against the death penalty by an organisation called St. Egidio.

He said Zambia had gone further to vote in the affirmative at the United Nations - UN- on maintenance of a moratorium of the death penalty.

Mr. Lubinda said President Lungu made the bold decision in 2016 to allow the Embassy of the Republic of the Republic of Zambia in New York to start voting in the affirmative after having abstained from voting on the moratorium for years.

He said despite the death Penalty still being upheld in the constitution, no President has signed the death penalty since 1998.

Mr. Lubinda clarified that unlike other laws that can easily be amended, the death penalty was part of the bill of rights that could only be amended through a referendum.

And the Minister said Zambia has adequate laws to guarantee the safety of investors in the country.

He said it was unfortunate that some Zambians where taking the law in their own hands by attacking foreigners who had come in the country to invest.

Mr. Lubinda said the recent xenophobic attacks on the Chinese where unfortunate and urged Zambia to use better channels in channelling their grievances.

The Minister further said Zambia should resist the temptation of being used in what he termed an economic conflict against the Chinese.

He said it was unfortunate that some political leaders including parliamentarians where inciting Zambians to rise against government's decision to engage the Chinese in some developmental projects.

The Minister was received at Bole International Airport by Ministry of Justice Permanent Secretary, Andrew Nkunika and Zambia's Ambassador to Ethiopia, Ms. Susan Sikaneta.

Source:  Lusaka Times, November 28, 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: Lusaka, Zambia
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