By David Swanson
Sweden banned censorship and guaranteed free speech in 1766, 10 years before the Declaration of Independence in the American British colonies, and—apart from shameful episodes of caving in to dictatorships and Nazis—has pretty well kept it in place. Sweden banned the death penalty and has not used it since 1910. Now, Sweden has an opportunity to punish the speech of a Nobel Peace Prize nominee with the death penalty by extraditing Julian Assange to the United States to be put on trial.