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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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UN | Philippines votes to end death penalty worldwide

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In 2007, the Philippines signed and ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which refers to the abolition of the death penalty.

The Philippines has voted in favor of a global moratorium on the death penalty at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

During Wednesday’s plenary session of the UNGA, the Philippines joined 129 other countries, representing more than two-thirds of the members, in voting in favor of the resolution.

At least 32 countries voted against the resolution proposed by Argentina and Italy on behalf of an Inter-Regional Task Force of member states and co-sponsored by 70 states, while 22 countries abstained.

The number of countries supporting the call for a global moratorium on capital punishment has grown over the past years since the introduction of the resolution in 2007 in the UNGA.

According to Amnesty International, several states changed their vote positively since then like Antigua, Barbuda, the Bahamas, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Meanwhile, Gabon, Kenya, Morocco and Zambia voted in favor of the resolution after abstaining in 2022. Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Somalia, and Vanuatu also voted in favor after not voting in the plenary two years ago.

Of all the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Philippines and Cambodia are the only member states that have abolished capital punishment for heinous crimes.

The Philippines abolished the death penalty under the 1987 Constitution. It was reimposed during the administration of former President Fidel Ramos due to the rising crime rate in the country.

Leo Echegaray was the first person to be executed when the country reinstated the death penalty in 1993 through lethal injection under President Joseph Estrada.

Capital punishment for crimes was abolished for the last time in 2006. It was fully abolished through a law signed by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, which reduced the maximum punishment to life imprisonment.

In 2007, the Philippines signed and ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which refers to the abolition of the death penalty.

Former president Rodrigo Duterte vowed to reintroduce capital punishment in 2016 to combat drug trafficking in the country. The following year, a bill reintroducing the death penalty was overwhelmingly passed by the House of Representatives but stalled in the Senate due to a lack of support from the senators.

Source: tribune.net.ph, Jom Garner, December 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: Philippines
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