President Biden says the Constitution’s Ninth Amendment contains ‘right to privacy’ and that its ‘core’ is ‘freedom from being murdered’
Biden said the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the death penalty to be reinstated in some states amounts to ‘a kind of execution,’ and that he would support repeal of the death penalty in Congress
Biden said he opposed the death penalty both as a senator and as vice president
Biden says America’s ‘culture of death’ should be ended by ‘public policy’
Former Vice President Joe Biden says the Supreme Court’s ruling on the reinstated death penalty in five states amounts to ‘a kind of execution,’ and that he would support the repeal of the death penalty in Congress.
‘In this country, we have these issues of the death penalty for a reason,’ Biden said at the annual convention of the Catholic University of America in Washington. ‘We hold that it is inconsistent with the concept of human dignity. We hold that it lacks adequate and effective penological purpose.
‘We hold that it undermines our basic beliefs in democracy and the rule of law. We hold that it is inhumane, immoral and an affront to all those who cherish the fundamental principles that make us who we are.
‘And as a result, in the United States we hold that it should be abolished in this, the great land of the free and home of the brave.’
His comments, Biden said, came after he had visited a jail, where he saw the conditions in which inmates were kept.
‘You go to the jails and you see people who are there because they’re nonviolent offenders, because they have mental illness, because of a drug addiction. And I saw the conditions that they’re held in, and it makes me sick. It’s just a disgrace,’ Biden said.
‘That’s exactly why you have a death penalty: to deal with those kinds of situations,’ he added. ‘It’s not the only way to solve this particular issue.’
He then called for the repeal of the death penalty in Congress, saying that ‘we are not in the business of abolishing the death penalty. We are not in the business of abolishing the death penalty. We are not in the business of abolishing the death penalty. We are not in the business of abolition.’
He said he