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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 | 22-year-old man executed on his birthday in Mashhad

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Ali Khaleqi Farghani, a 22-year-old prisoner convicted of premeditated murder, was executed on his birthday in Mashhad Central Prison on Thursday, December 5, 2024.

According to a report received by the Hengaw Organization, he had been arrested two years ago on charges of premeditated murder and was subsequently sentenced to two counts of the death penalty.

A source close to Mr. Khaleqi Farghani’s family told Hengaw: “On September 29, 2022, at least 12 people attacked Ali and his friend during a street altercation. In the course of the fight, two individuals were killed, and Ali, who had sustained a neck injury near his jugular vein, fell into a coma. After two months, he was transferred directly from the hospital to prison, where he was tortured into confessing to the two murders during the altercation. The judiciary subsequently sentenced him to death.”

The source further stated: “After Ali regained full health, he maintained that he had not committed the murders. Despite reviewing CCTV footage, the victims’ families insisted on his guilt. His execution was carried out on his birthday.”

The Center for Human Rights in Iran has repeatedly called for an immediate halt to all executions in Iran and the quashing of existing death sentences as these executions frequently involve severe due process violations.

Source: iranhumanrights.org, Staff, December 9, 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: Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran
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