As you know, it was announced yesterday that the DOJ would reinstate the federal death penalty and use it to execute several men on death row. But we’re learning now that most of the men being executed are only eligible for it because of a crime law that Joe Biden championed:
NBC NEWS – Four of the five inmates President Donald Trump’s Justice Department plans to execute in the coming months are eligible for the federal death penalty because of provisions in anti-crime laws backed by 2020 Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden.
Daniel Lewis Lee, Lezmond Mitchell, Wesley Ira Purkey, Alfred Bourgeois and Dustin Lee Honken are scheduled to be put to death between December and January. All but Bourgeois were convicted of federal capital crimes that were established under either the 1994 omnibus anti-crime law sponsored by Biden or the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which he voted for.
Biden spokesman Andrew Bates declined to comment for this story.
You can bet he didn’t comment, LOL. But you can also be sure this is going to come up in the debate next week, which should be very interesting.
It continues…
He was the lead Senate sponsor of legislation that became the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, colloquially known as the “crime bill.” The final version was approved by the Senate on a 61-38 vote, following a 235-195 vote in the House. President Bill Clinton signed the measure into law.
It added dozens of crimes to the list of federal offenses for which the death penalty could be applied, and it included language closely tracking the 1988 anti-drug statute in allowing for murders related to drug crimes to be punished by execution. Biden voted with 86 other senators to pass it.
For what it’s worth, Biden did respond to the announcement by the DOJ yesterday:
Since 1973, over 160 individuals in this country have been sentenced to death and were later exonerated. Because we can’t ensure that we get these cases right every time, we must eliminate the death penalty. https://t.co/o9LQHWwmt7
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 25, 2019
He’s calling for the elimination of it now, but I’m sure that won’t carry much weight with his opponents next week who will no doubt blame him for all of this.