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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.

Patrick Crusius' lawyer fights death penalty

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Patrick Crucius, accused of killing 22 people in El Paso, Texas.
A court-appointed lawyer for the man accused of shooting 22 people in El Paso, Texas, says he will do everything he can to ensure his client is not executed.

Twenty-one-year-old Patrick Crusius has been charged with capital murder in state court for the Saturday massacre.

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Crusius may face federal hate-crime charges that could also come with a death sentence if he's convicted.

Lawyer Mark Stevens told The Associated Press in an email on Wednesday that he "will use every legal tool available to me to prevent" Crusius from being put to death.

Stevens, a veteran criminal defence lawyer from San Antonio, said he will only represent Crusius in state court and declined to comment further on the case. 

A judge appointed him Monday

Source: Australian Associated Press, Staff, August 8, 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: Texas, USA
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