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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.

Japan: Two hanged in deplorable move

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Gallows' trapdoor at Tokyo Detention Center
While the rest of the world increasingly turns its back on the death penalty, Japan remains stuck in the past by continuing with this ultimate cruel and irreversible punishment. -- Roseann Rife, East Asia Research Director, at Amnesty International.

In response to the news that two people were executed in Japan on Friday morning, Roseann Rife, East Asia Research Director at Amnesty International, said:

“These executions demonstrate the Japanese government’s shocking disregard for human life. While the rest of the world increasingly turns its back on the death penalty, Japan remains stuck in the past by continuing with this ultimate cruel and irreversible punishment.

“It is deplorable that the government continues to carry out executions. As Japan prepares to host the UN Crime Congress next April, it is high time that its criminal justice system is reviewed to fully comply with international human rights law and standards. We urge the Japanese authorities to establish an immediate moratorium on all executions and promote an informed debate on the death penalty as first steps towards its abolition.”

Background


The two individuals executed in the early hours of Friday morning were Koichi Shoji, 64, at Tokyo Detention Centre and the other, Yasunori Suzuki, 50, at Fukuoka Detention Centre. Both had been convicted of murder.

The executions are the first in Japan in 2019 and bring the total number of executions under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration to 38. Currently 110 individuals remain on death row in Japan.

Executions in Japan are shrouded in secrecy with prisoners typically given only a few hours’ notice, but some may be given no warning at all. Their families are usually notified about the execution only after it has taken place.

In April 2020, Kyoto will host the Fourteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, a forum that brings together criminal justice experts among governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and scholars to share experiences and identify solutions to problems relating to crime prevention and criminal justice. Several panels will seek to address the use of the death penalty in Japan and globally.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender or the method used by the state to carry out the execution and has been campaigning for abolition of the death penalty for more than 40 years.

Source: Amnesty International, Staff, August 2, 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: Japan
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