Bali Nine lawyer welcomes online campaign

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran

The lawyer for the two Bali Nine members on death row agrees diplomacy is the best way forward for his clients but is not opposed to an online campaign supporting their bid for clemency from the Indonesian president.

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the so-called ringleaders of the 2005 plot to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin from Bali to Australia, are likely to apply for clemency from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, after the Indonesian Supreme Court rejected their final appeals against the death sentence.

Their Australian-based lawyer, Julian McMahon, said on Wednesday that he welcomed a campaign launched last week which will use social media to raise awareness about their case and support for a petition which will ask that Dr Yudhoyono spares their lives.

The comments come after the respected Indonesian human rights group, Kontras, on Tuesday called for a low-key diplomatic approach to the case, saying the online campaign could actually do more harm than good.

But Mr McMahon sees the online effort as a positive step.

"Kontras have said that diplomacy, not an online campaign, is the best way forward," he said.

"I agree with Kontras, but I also welcomed the new website. As a lawyer for Chan and Sukumaran, it is obvious to me that diplomacy is what matters most now, it is central to how this case ends. I know both countries share that view, and I am glad."

"But the death penalty cannot be confined to diplomacy."

Kontras, otherwise known as the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, has warned there was a risk that a public campaign could have a negative effect on the attitudes of people in Indonesia as well as that of the president.

"People will be saying that this issue was raised and funded by foreign people and Indonesia is being controlled by a foreign power," spokesman for the Jakarta-based group said on Tuesday.

"The best way for now would be to adopt a diplomatic approach and focus efforts on trying to reduce the sentence."

However, Mr McMahon said mercycampaign.org website, which is organised by a group of Melbourne lawyers, was by no means disrespectful to Indonesia or its people.

"It's inevitable that there will be discussion, which of course increases pressure on me, on my clients on death row, on all the decision-makers, politicians and diplomats involved. So I want to see that debate done in the best way possible," he said.

"I have no doubt that people who read it will find the website respectful, and a sensible way of progressing the inevitable public debate, whatever their views about the death penalty.

Dr Yudhoyono has previously indicated he is reluctant to show mercy to people facing death sentences, and in particular those convicted of drug trafficking offences.

But he has also recently criticised Saudi Arabia for executing an Indonesian maid convicted of murder and has also stepped in to save another maid who was facing death after being convicted by a Riyadh court of killing a relative of her Yemeni employer.

Source: AAP, July 20, 2011

The online petition can be signed here.

23 hours ago

Sukumaran was the last of the Bali Nine with an appeal pending, and like fellow member Andrew Chan, must now rely on clemency from Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono if he is to avoid a firing squad. ...

http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/

_________________________

Use the tags below or the search engine at the top of this page to find updates, older or related articles on this Website.

Comments

Kansas AG urges governor to deny clemency to 8 sentenced to death

TOPEKA — Attorney General Kris Kobach on Tuesday urged the governor to deny clemency to Kansas inmates who have been sentenced to death. Eight of nine people sentenced to death in Kansas formally filed clemency requests in May, according to a press release from the Attorney General’s Office. Kobach urged Gov. Laura Kelly to reject them.

Idaho will soon turn to firing squad executions. Police will pull the triggers

Trained members of Idaho law enforcement with demonstrated firearms proficiency are expected to fill slots for carrying out the death penalty by firing squad as the state prison system transitions to the controversial execution method next month. Six volunteers certified for no less than three years apiece through Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, will be recruited to ensure the Idaho Department of Correction is ready to comply with a state law that prioritizes shooting prisoners to death over lethal injection starting July 1. No one on the team may have faced disciplinary action over firearms, use of force, or related conduct over the prior year, according to new execution protocols the prison system released this week.

SCOTUS: Alabama can’t execute Jeffery Lee by nitrogen; Thursday execution called off

After a week of legal volleyball, Alabama death row inmate Jeffery Lee’s execution—scheduled for Thursday evening—was called off after federal courts called the state’s nitrogen gas execution method “likely unconstitutional.” The state took the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court, hoping Lee could still be put to death tonight. In an order issued at 8:10 p.m., the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that it would not lift a ban on Alabama executing Lee via nitrogen . In a short court order, the justices denied Alabama’s motion to go ahead with the execution. Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch would have granted the appeal and let the execution proceed, according to the order.

Alabama | Judge bars nitrogen gas execution, says method is unconstitutionally cruel

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A federal judge on Tuesday permanently blocked Alabama from executing an inmate with nitrogen gas after declaring it violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. U.S. District Judge Emily Marks issued the ruling hours after an appeals court reversed her initial finding that the method was constitutional. Marks permanently enjoined the state from executing Jeffrey Lee, 49, by nitrogen gas. He was scheduled to be executed Thursday. The decision, for now, blocks the use of the controversial new execution method that the state has championed since 2024, but the issue will likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

With nitrogen gas blocked, Alabama seeks to execute inmate by lethal injection

Jeffery Lee, who successfully challenged his scheduled Thursday execution by nitrogen gas, argued that execution by firing squad would be less painful. The Alabama Attorney General’s Office Friday sought to put an Alabama death row inmate to death by lethal injection a day after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed the state’s attempt to execute him by nitrogen gas. In a filing with the Alabama Supreme Court Friday afternoon, the state sought an expedited motion to set a new execution date for Jeffery Lee, 49. The state said that with a permanent injunction in place against nitrogen gas, the method by which the state intended to execute Lee on Thursday, it could execute him by lethal injection or the electric chair.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

New Mississippi billboard warns criminals: ‘Firing squad is legal’

DESOTO COUNTY, Miss. (WREG) — A billboard standing on Interstate 55 southbound as you cross the Tennessee state line and enter Mississippi from Memphis is sending a grim message to those coming into the state. DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton recently announced the new billboard campaign, which features the sign reading, “WELCOME TO MISSISSIPPI. WHERE THE FIRING SQUAD IS LEGAL. THINK TWICE.” It references Mississippi’s law permitting execution by firing squad under certain circumstances for inmates sentenced to death. Barton says this campaign is aimed at deterring violent crime and sends a direct message to criminals entering Mississippi.

US | Army lays groundwork for death row executions if Trump gives approval

The Army is preparing to carry out the executions of the military's four death-row inmates if ordered to do so by the president, according to an internal planning document reviewed by ABC News. If carried out, it would mark the first time the military executed convicted American inmates in more than a half-century The plan, dubbed "Operation Resolute Justice" and issued internally in February, directs Army officials to coordinate with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to transfer condemned prisoners from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to the federal execution facility in Terre Haute, Indiana, where the Justice Department carried out a series of non-military federal executions during President Donald Trump's first term.

Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch wanted an execution that a Trump judge deemed illegal

The Supreme Court these days is generally in the business of helping executions go forward. But on Thursday night, the court did something notable: It told Alabama no. Even then, the court wasn't unanimous. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the refusal to let the nitrogen gas execution of Jeffery Lee proceed. What prompted the rare rejection? In line with the typical shadow docket practice, the court didn't explain itself. Nor did the dissenters, who merely noted their disagreement. But a deeper look at the case helps us understand why a majority of the court was unwilling to help the state this time.

Texas | Tanner Horner now incarcerated at the Polunsky Unit

Convicted child killer Tanner Horner has now taken up residence in one of the most brutal death row prisons after being sentenced to die by a Texas jury last month. Horner is incarcerated at the Polunsky Unit, an infamously restrictive prison outside Houston where the state's death row inmates are housed in an all-solitary confinement wing and spend at least 22 hours a day in their 60-square-foot cells. The former FedEx deliveryman, 34, was booked at the notorious prison on May 5 within hours of being sentenced for the gruesome murder of Athena Strand, 7, whom he admitted strangling while delivering a Christmas gift to her home in November 2022.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog