Biden accused of hypocrisy over push for death penalty

US PRESIDENT Joe Biden, who campaigned on a pledge to abolish federal capital punishment, has been accused of hypocrisy after his administration pushed for the death penalty in the case of a terrorist convicted in New York.

Sayfullo Saipov, who used a truck to kill eight people on a Manhattan bike path in 2017, was found guilty on Thursday of murder and terrorism charges by a jury in the first federal death penalty trial of Mr Biden’s administration.

After finding Saipov, an Uzbek national, guilty of committing murder with the goal of joining the militant group Islamic State, the Manhattan jury will return in early February to consider whether the death penalty is appropriate punishment.

The US Department of Justice sought the death penalty for Saipov despite a July 2021 moratorium on federal executions as it reviews the practice.

Chris Geidner, legal expert at Law Dork, tweeted: “The Biden administration’s Justice Department is pursuing this as a capital case, contrary to Joe Biden’s pledge as a candidate for @ POTUS to work to end the death penalty. You cannot be working to end the death penalty if you are seeking to put people on death row.”

Two years into his presidency, Mr Biden, who became the first US leader to openly oppose the death penalty, has taken few substantial steps to live up to his campaign promise.

Advocates for abolishing capital punishment say his silence in the latest case is attracting attention.

“The Biden administration appears to have no understanding that inaction, if it continues, will result in executions,” said Robert Dunham, of the nonpartisan Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, DC. “The Biden administration executions will be carried out by a future administration. But they will be Biden executions.”