GENEVA (Reuters) – The U.N. human rights chief on Tuesday welcomed a pledge by U.S. President Joe Biden to work towards abolishing the death penalty in the United States.
Biden, a Democrat, promised voters last year he would seek to end the federal death penalty, and took office last month as the country’s first abolitionist president.
“I welcome the pledge by the new U.S. Administration to work towards ending the death penalty, both at federal and state level,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said.
The punishment at a federal level was revived by Donald Trump last year after a 17-year hiatus caused in part by the increasing difficulty of obtaining drugs for lethal injections.
Article URL: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2AN1DI