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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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Group asks Gov. Cooper to commute all North Carolina death sentences before leaving office

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The North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty met Sunday afternoon at The Church on Morgan in downtown Raleigh. 

There, advocates called for Gov. Roy Cooper to commute all death sentences in North Carolina before he leaves office.

Rev. Sharon Risher lost her mother and 2 cousins in 2015 during the Charleston shooting, when 21-year-old Dylann Roof killed nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

“Family members who have been through horrific things, in the name of justice and revenge. I just want to be able to tell a different story,” Risher told CBS17.

Risher said that every time Roof appeals his sentence, she and her family have to relive their trauma all over again. She told CBS 17 that it would be easier for her if Roof would get a life sentence.

Former death row inmates also attended Sunday’s event. Henry Lee McCollum was on death row for 31 years before his murder conviction was overturned. McCollum was 19 when he, and his 15-year-old brother were accused of raping and murdering an 11-year-old.

McCollum and his brother were released decades later, after new DNA evidence linked another man to the crime. McCollum told CBS 17 that he believes he met more innocent men while on death row.

He also said that even those who are guilty, deserve a chance to change.

“People that commit crimes, they do change. I don’t believe they deserve capital punishment. I believe they deserve to be in prison for life,” McCollum said.

North Carolina has not executed anyone since 2006, since lawsuits put the practice on hold. Advocates say they will not rest until the death penalty is abolished completely in the state.

Source: WNCN news, Staff, August 19, 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: North Carolina, USA
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