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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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Norway marks ten years since Breivik massacre

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In Norway, on Wednesday, July 21, commemorative events are held to remember the events ten years ago, when killer Anders Breivik took the life of 77 people, French news agency AFP and news portal France 24 report.


On July 22, 2011, Anders Breivik, detonated a fertiliser bomb outside a government building in Oslo, killing eight persons.

Then he took a ferry to the island of Utoya, located in a lake northwest of the capital owned and run by the youth league of Norway’s Labour Party, and dressed in a self-made police uniform tracked and gunned down 69 people, mostly teenagers and injured 110 more. 

Police finally arrived and arrested him.

➤ Anders Breivik | Find related content here

Subsequently, the killer was handed the maximum sentence – 21 years in prison, which can be extended indefinitely, AFP and France 24 report.

Norway’s July 22, 2011, terror attack: a timeline


STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — A timeline of the events of July 2011, when Anders Behring Breivik attacked the Norwegian government and a Labor youth camp on the island of Utoya, killing a total of 77 people, and the court proceedings that followed:

July 22, 2011

2:09 p.m. — Anders Breivik sends a manifesto, “2083 – A European Declaration of Independence” to 1,002 email addresses including Norwegian politicians and journalists.

3:17 p.m. — Breivik parks a white van outside the government quarter in Oslo, loaded with a 950-kilogram bomb, then leaves in a separate vehicle heading for Utoya island.

3:25 p.m. — The bomb explodes, killing six women and two men.

5:17 p.m. — Breivik arrives in Utoya on a boat from the mainland, dressed as a policeman and carrying an arsenal of weapons in a suitcase

5:21 p.m. — The shooting starts. Breivik kills a guard and a camp organizer before stalking and murdering mostly teenagers and young adults around the island. He kills 69 people.

6:34 p.m. — Breivik gives himself up to armed police and is arrested

April 16, 2012 — The trial begins with Breivik entering the court giving a clenched fist salute. The court will decide if he is sane, and capable of facing justice.

August 24, 2012 — Breivik is sentenced to the maximum 21 years in prison. He will serve his sentence in a high security three-room cell, with access to a gym and computer games, but very little contact with other inmates.

July 2015 — Breivik begins proceedings to sue the Norwegian state for violations of human rights

March 15, 2016 — Breivik returns to court in a special prison facility, for the beginning of the hearing. He enters, giving a Nazi salute

April 20, 2016 — The Oslo district court rules that Breivik’s imprisonment violates article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment. The government says it will appeal

March 1, 2017 — An appeals court overrules the previous decision

June 21, 2018 — The European Court of Human Rights rejects Breivik’s appeal

Sources: Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press, Staff, July 21-19, 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: Utøya, Hole Municipality, Norway
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