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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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Iran Human Rights: Raisi’s Death Does Not Mean the Closure of the Case on His Crimes

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Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 20, 2023: Ebrahim Raisi, the president of the Islamic Republic and a member of the "Death Committee," died yesterday in a helicopter crash.

Honoring the memory of thousands of men and women who have fallen victim to the crimes of Ebrahim Raisi and the Islamic Republic over the past four decades, Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) emphasizes that Raisi's death does not mean the closure of the case on his crimes. IHRNGO hopes that one day, his record, along with those of other officials of the Islamic Republic and perpetrators of crimes against humanity, will be addressed in a competent court.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of Iran Human Rights, stated:

"Ebrahim Raisi was a symbol of judicial impunity for criminals and the entrenched lack of accountability within the Islamic Republic's system. In addition to his direct responsibility for the execution of thousands of political prisoners as one of the four members of the 'Death Committee' in the summer of 1988, during the early 1980s and the height of political suppression and executions, he held positions such as Prosecutor of Karaj and Hamedan and Revolutionary Prosecutor of Tehran, being responsible for crimes whose full extent is still unknown to the public.

In the following decades, as he climbed the ranks of the judiciary, holding key positions such as Deputy Head of the Judiciary and Attorney General, he played a direct role in more crimes, including the suppression of the 2009 protests, subsequent executions of dissidents, and hundreds of other executions.

During his two-year tenure as head of the judiciary, he was responsible for the execution of over 400 individuals, including political dissidents and protesters like Navid Afkari, Mostafa Salehi, Ruhollah Zam, and Hedayat Abdollahpour, as well as the execution of at least seven juvenile offenders, 25 women, and  one man for consuming alcohol.

Ebrahim Raisi should have been prosecuted for crimes against humanity and held accountable in a fair trial for the countless atrocities he committed over these four decades. However, in the Islamic Republic's system, such crimes result in promotions, and Ebrahim Raisi rose from the position of assistant prosecutor in Karaj in 1980 to the head of the judiciary in 2019 and the presidency in 2021."

Source: iranhr.net, Staff, May 20, 2024

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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: Iran
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