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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’s Top Court Upholds Death Penalty for Guard Volunteer over 2022 Protest Killing

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TEHRAN: The Supreme Court of Iran has upheld a death sentence awarded to a member of the all-volunteer wing of the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard who stormed a house during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini and killed a 60-year-old man, said a lawyer on Tuesday.

The capital punishment awarded to the Basij member marks a rare moment for Iran to hold accountable its security forces. It is pertinent to mention that more than 500 people were killed and over 22,000 were detained in the 2022 protests.

Since then, Iran has put to death multiple protesters who were arrested in the crackdown and accused of killing security forces, after closed-door trials condemned by activists abroad.

Lawyer Payam Derafshan, who represented a protester detained in 2022, told the Western media that the Supreme Court reached its verdict on August 26 over the killing of Mohammad Jamehbozorg.

The convicted Basij member and others stormed Jamehbozorg’s residence in Karaj, looking for protestors taking part in the Amini demonstrations, including his son. The Basij member, shot Jamehbozorg in the head, killing him on the spot.

Two other Guard members also received jail imprisonments.

Amini, 22, died after being arrested by Iran’s morality police over allegedly improperly wearing her headscarf. In March, a UN fact-finding mission said Iran was responsible for the physical violence that led to Amini’s death.

There has been another case of a security force member receiving the death sentence over a killing in the Amini protests.  

Cases involving security forces accused of brutality have been a major focus of Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian. Last week, Pezeshkian ordered an inquiry into the death of a man in custody after activists alleged he had been tortured to death by police officers.

Source: wenewsenglish.pk, Staff, September 3, 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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