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Activists Call on President Biden to End the Federal Death Penalty Before Leaving Office

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A conversation with Death Penalty Action Co-founder and Executive Director Abe Bonowitz. Now that Joe Biden is a lame duck president, activists are holding him accountable to make good on his promise to end the federal death penalty during his remaining six months as president. Biden’s election campaign in 2020 had pledged to end the federal death penalty and incentivize the remaining 27 states that still allow executions to do the same. While he made history as the first president in the United States to openly oppose the death penalty, there has been no movement to actually end federal executions during his nearly four years in office.

Missouri | December execution date set for man convicted of killing young girl

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The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday set a December execution date for Christopher Collings, who was convicted of raping and killing a 9-year-old girl nearly 2 decades ago. 

Collings is scheduled to die by a chemical injection at 6 p.m. on Dec. 3 at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri. He was convicted in the death of Rowan Ford, a 4th-grade student who went missing from her home in Stella, Missouri, on Nov. 3, 2007. Her body was found in a cave 6 days later. 

Police said the child had been strangled. 

A message was left Tuesday with Collings' attorney. 

Two men have been executed in Missouri this year — Brian Dorsey on April 9 and David Hosier on June 11. 

A 3rd execution is scheduled on Sept. 24 for Marcellus Williams. 

Williams has long claimed innocence and St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell has filed a motion to vacate the sentence, arguing new evidence shows that someone else's DNA — but not Williams' — was on the knife used in the killing. 

An evidentiary hearing for Williams begins on Aug. 21.

Source: The Associated Press, Staff, August 14, 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: Missouri, USA
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