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As clock ticks toward another Trump presidency, federal death row prisoners appeal for clemency

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President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office is putting a spotlight on the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, which houses federal death row. In Bloomington, a small community of death row spiritual advisors is struggling to support the prisoners to whom they minister.  Ross Martinie Eiler is a Mennonite, Episcopal lay minister and member of the Catholic Worker movement, which assists the homeless. And for the past three years, he’s served as a spiritual advisor for a man on federal death row.
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British author Alan Shadrake to appeal jail term

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Alan Shadrake
A British author jailed for six weeks after his book on Singapore's death penalty was found to be in contempt of court is filing an appeal to overturn his conviction, his lawyer said.

Alan Shadrake, 76, "wishes to appeal against his conviction and sentence", a letter sent by his lawyer, M Ravi, to the Supreme Court said.

Mr Ravi said Shadrake, a freelance writer based in Malaysia and Britain, should not have been convicted for insulting the judiciary in his book Once A Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice In The Dock.

"Even if he's found guilty, the sentence is excessive," Mr Ravi said.

The lawyer declined to state his grounds for challenging the conviction.

Shadrake was handed a six-week jail term on Tuesday and fined 20,000 Singapore dollars ($15,000) after being found guilty of scandalising the city-state's courts.

It was the stiffest sentence ever imposed in Singapore for the offence and was denounced by human rights groups campaigning for an end to executions and greater freedom of expression in the country.

The previous longest jail term for contempt of court was 15 days.

Source: AFP, November 18, 2010
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