Biden reprieve for death-row police officer ‘morally depraved’ – prosecutor
www.theguardian.com
Michael McMahon condemns president for commuting death sentence given to Len Davis, 60, over 1994 murder

Check out the story, then answer this quiz before you read the spoiler: What happened here? What is the issue? Post your comment before reading the spoiler.

Spoiler

The issue is that he was one of the almost-all death row inmates who sentence was commuted to life in prison instead. He’s not free. You would have to read further in the article than I suspect about 80% of people are going to read, though, in order to find that out. There is no indication in the headline, lede, or quite a ways past the lede that this falls into the “life in prison” category of Biden pardons, and not into the “free to go” category of Biden pardons. And the framing and word choice heavily implies that it’s the second one.

I was actually going to post this, as a for-real news story, until I learned the punchline.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    5·
    10 days ago

    I got as far as the life-in-prison bit before closing the article and opening the comments. What a weird take to think that making someone live the rest of their life in prison is an insult to a victim. Only a blood-thirsty society would prefer their death.

    • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.catOP
      3·
      10 days ago

      There are many reasons to be disturbed by capital punishment. These include agonising deaths witnessed in the US, wrongful convictions, the blatant discrimination of criminal justice systems that results in the disproportionate killing of ethnic minority offenders, and the use of the death penalty for non-violent crimes and political offences. In Myanmar, relatives of the executed men were reportedly denied access to their bodies. But underlying all of this is the broader understanding that continues to spread through the world: that states have no right to take the lives of citizens.

      Couldn’t have said it better myself, The Guardian from July 2022. Quite well put, to be honest.

      https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/26/the-guardian-view-on-the-death-penalty-a-long-way-to-go