In response to the announcement from the Biden administration that 37 men currently on federal death row will have their sentences commuted, Paul O’Brien, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA made the following statement:
“We applaud President Biden for commuting the death sentences of 37 men currently on federal death row and removing the threat of execution in their cases once and for all. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, and President Biden’s eleventh-hour decision before leaving office to commute these death sentences is a big moment for human rights.
Following President Biden’s decisions Donald Trump said Tuesday that when he returns to the White House, he will order his administration to seek more death sentences.
“As soon as I am inaugurated, I will direct the Department of Justice to vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from rapists, murderers, and violent monsters,” wrote the future American president on his Truth Social platform.
Close to three quarters of the countries in the world have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice. The death penalty is still a lawful punishment in 27 states in the U.S., and a handful of those continue to execute people every year, giving the U.S. the notorious position of being one of the top countries in the world to use the death penalty. It is high time to end this cruel practice everywhere in the United States and beyond.
Abolition occurred in Canada in 1976 (except for some military offences, with complete abolition in 1998); in France in 1981; and in Australia in 1973 (although the state of Western Australia retained the penalty until 1984). In South Australia, under the premiership of then-Premier Dunstan, the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 (SA) was modified so that the death sentence was changed to life imprisonment in 1976.
In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly affirmed in a formal resolution that throughout the world, it is desirable to “progressively restrict the number of offences for which the death penalty might be imposed, with a view to the desirability of abolishing this punishment”
Source: wikipedia and Amnesty International USA
