By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-20 01:36:34 | Updated at 2025-01-20 06:49:25
5 hours ago
Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said on Sunday that personal feelings are “set aside” to protect the majority of people in Singapore when it comes to the death penalty.
Shanmugam was responding to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article in December last year about US President Joe Biden commuting the death sentences of 37 inmates before stepping down from his role on January 20.
The US newspaper’s commentary, Biden’s Prisoners of (His) Conscience, highlighted some of the convicts whom Biden has pardoned, such as Jorge Avila-Torrez, who sexually assaulted and murdered women, and Anthony Battle, who killed his wife and a prison officer.
“President Biden referred to his personal conscience, for doing this,” Shanmugam said in a Facebook post.
He added that the Wall Street Journal had also pointed out that in contrast, there were others whose death sentences Biden had not commuted.
This included the gunman who murdered Jewish congregants at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, and the person who shot and killed African-American worshippers at a church in Charleston.
