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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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Indisputable argument against death penalty, Shadrake's "Once a Jolly Hangman" now available in Polish, launched in Belarus

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Amnesty International network members may well remember Alan Shadrake's 2010 revealing book on executions in Singapore, Once A Jolly Hangman. 

It made an immediate impact with its analysis of the heartlessness and futility  of the judicial system, its accounts of individual cases, and the emotional suffering of those on death row and their families. 

Based partly on astonishing  interviews with Singapore's former hangman and courageous defense lawyers, the book made an indisputable argument against the death penalty. 

Shadrake's immediate post-launch arrest and imprisonment for "scandalising the judiciary" only served to heighten interest in the book and the issues it raises. 

The book is still banned in Singapore, and unconscionably Singapore retains the death penalty to this day.


However, Once A Jolly Hangman continues to play a crucial role in anti-death-penalty campaigning on the international stage. 

Once dubbed by The Economist as the world execution capital, Singapore is believed to have one of the highest per capita rates of execution of any country worldwide, thus remaining totally out of step in the move regionally and internationally towards a death penalty-free world. A historic momentum is building from which Singapore chooses to exclude itself.
Shadrake's "Once a Jolly Hangman" unearths new or little-known information. The author argues convincingly that only the cases with possible negative political or economic outcomes appear to have succeeded in preventing executions of foreign nationals. In contrast, he exposes the pitiful, hopeless situation of poor, uneducated or desperate drug mules with no important connections. - Margaret John, A.I. Canada


British author Alan ShadrakeSo much so that on July 1 of this year, a Polish-language edition is to be launched for use in Belarus (the sole EU retentionist country) and other countries of the former Soviet Union. 

I understand that an electronic version will soon be made available alongside the English-language print version (which can be found on Amazon). 

✔ Alan Shadrake, author of Once a Jolly Hangman | Find related content here

I am glad that it is now accessible to a Polish-speaking readership, since its pertinence extends beyond Singapore.  

Source: Amnesty International Canada, Margaret John, June 29, 2020. Margaret John is Coordinator for Singapore and Malaysia.


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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: Singapore
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