U.N. Vote to Ban Death Penalty Is Joe Biden's Latest Headache, Experts Say

The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday passed a resolution to establish a worldwide "moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty." Although a majority of the nations of the world supported the effort, there was one noticeable holdout: the United States.

The resolution comes up every two years when a new assembly comes into session, and each time it is always approved with more support than the prior vote. This year, a supermajority of nations voted 125 to 37, with 22 abstentions, to support the moratorium.

The U.S. was among the 37 countries to vote no, which is how it has always voted, so political party affiliation hasn't played a role. Under the leadership of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Donald Trump, America also voted against the resolution.

However, some people felt this year's vote might be different under Democratic President Joe Biden. As a candidate, Biden promised to "pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level and incentivize states to follow the federal government's example."

Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center—a non-profit organization that reports on capital punishment without taking a formal position—told Newsweek that this year's vote came with added pressure.

"The vote becomes especially problematic this year, given Iran's use of very public gruesome hanging as a way of attempting to repress social protest," Dunham said.

During recent protests in Iran that challenged the country's theocracy, two men were publicly hanged. According to Amnesty International, Iran is planning to execute at least another 18 people who were involved with the demonstrations.

The United States voting no on the resolution "put us in the same league, with Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, China, North Korea and Vietnam," Dunham said. "And when the United States thinks about which countries it's most closely aligned with, those aren't the ones that it wants to be associated with."

He added, "As a country, we pride ourselves on a commitment to human rights and the commitment to the dignity of all individuals. To be aligned with the actions of a country that actively repudiates those values creates a significant problem."

Even still, public executions of protesters is very different from convicted murderers, Dunham said. Jeffrey L. Kirchmeier, law professor at City University of New York, also told Newsweek that the U.S. is always careful to make such distinctions.

"While the U.S. may be critical of another country's use of the death penalty, as in the case of the recent executions in Iran, U.S. officials generally are careful to distinguish those cases from the U.S.' use of the death penalty regarding the nature of the capital crimes and/or the fairness of the process," Kirchmeier said.

However, Kirchmeier added that American "opposition to international resolutions calling of a moratorium on capital punishment has always exposed the hypocrisy of the United States position on international human rights issues."

U.N. members are not bound to follow resolutions passed by the General Assembly, and the U.S. federal government and individual states could continue to carry out capital punishment even if the U.S. had voted yes. American support of the resolution would not immediately strike down the death penalty across the country.

Though capital punishment could be considered a divisive issue, Dunham said he doesn't think Biden's decision on opposing the resolution was strictly a political move born out of caution from his opinion polls. If anything, Dunham said, the death penalty has lost support in the U.S. in recent years.

A Gallup poll released last month showed 55 percent of Americans said they support the death penalty for convicted murderers. Ten years ago, that number was at 63 percent, while 20 years ago it was at 70 percent after hitting a record-high of 80 percent in 1994.

Dunham said Biden staying out of the capital punishment debate in the U.S. could have more to do with him wanting to reestablish the creditability of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), an agency that many felt was somewhat delegitimatized during Trump's administration. By emphasizing the independence of the DOJ, Biden has allowed Attorney General Merrick Garland to make decisions regarding the death penalty in federal cases.

Even if the death penalty ended in the U.S., American presidents and diplomats still have to reckon with a long history of capital punishment.

"We lack the moral standing to criticize other countries on their use of capital punishment," Dunham said, adding American leaders who condemn executions in other countries risk having America's history getting "thrown back in their face."

Nonetheless, a vote in favor of the U.N. resolution would have sent a message, Dunham said. Doing so would have given Biden "an unparalleled opportunity to make a statement in favor of human rights with his vote."

Newsweek has reached out to the White House for comment.