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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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USA | After 1,390 Executions, Virginia Will Abolish Death Penalty

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Virginia will become the 23rd state to abolish the death penalty on Wednesday [ March 24], and the first state in the South where executions are the highest nationwide, when Gov. Ralph Northam signs legislation to outlaw it.

KEY FACTS


Virginia’s Democratic-controlled state legislature voted in February to repeal the death penalty, and Northam called the practice “inhumane” and a “terrible use of our resources.”

The commonwealth has executed 113 people since the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty in 1976—second only to Texas.

The Virginia death penalty also appears to have disproportionately affected Black Americans—nearly half of the people the commonwealth has executed were Black.

KEY BACKGROUND


Virginia has been executing prisoners for about 400 years—and has executed more people than any other state or U.S. territory in its history. 

Virginia Democrats have pushed to ban capital punishment for several years but finally got their chance now that Democrats have complete control over the state government. 

There are two people currently on death row in Virginia and both will have their sentences changed to life in prison without parole once the legislation is signed.

CHIEF CRITIC


Virginia House Minority Leader, Republican Todd Gilbert, said Democrats haven’t shown “even a little bit of concern for victims of crime.”

BIG NUMBER


1,390. That’s the number of executions in Virginia’s history, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

TANGENT


Former President Donald Trump directed his administration to resume federal executions in 2019—no federal executions had been carried out since 2003. 

The Trump administration executed 13 prisoners. 

While President Joe Biden has said he’d work to end federal executions, he hasn’t set a timeline. 


Source: forbes.com, Melissa Holzberg, March 24, 2021


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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: Virginia, USA
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