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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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BREAKING: New Hampshire Senate votes to repeal death penalty

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New Hampshire Senate
CONCORD, N.H. — The New Hampshire Senate has voted to repeal the state's death penalty, sending the bill to Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.

Sununu has promised to veto the bill, as he did last year. But this time, the bill passed both the House and Senate with veto-proof majorities. 

The Senate vote Thursday was 17-6, with five Republicans joining 12 Democrats voting in favor of repeal.

The state hasn't executed anyone since 1939, and the repeal bill would not apply retroactively to Michael Addison, who killed Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs in 2006 and is the state's only death row inmate. But supporters of capital punishment argue that courts will see it differently.

Last month, Briggs' widow, Laura Briggs, spoke against a repeal in part because her son's now working in law enforcement.

THIS STORY WILL BE UPDATED

Source: The Associated Press, Staff, April 11, 2019


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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: New Hampshire, USA
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