FEATURED POST

Biden Fails a Death Penalty Abolitionist’s Most Important Test

Published
Image
The mystery of Joe Biden’s views about capital punishment has finally been solved. His decision to grant clemency to 37 of the 40 people on federal death row shows the depth of his opposition to the death penalty. And his decision to leave three of America’s most notorious killers to be executed by a future administration shows the limits of his abolitionist commitment. The three men excluded from Biden’s mass clemency—Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers—would no doubt pose a severe test of anyone’s resolve to end the death penalty. Biden failed that test.
Post a Comment

Bali Nine duo's bodies return to Australia

Published
The coffins were carried on Qantas flight 42, which landed in Sydney just before dawn, at 6:13am
The coffins were carried on Qantas flight 42, which
landed in Sydney just before dawn, at 6:13am
The bodies of executed Bali duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have arrived at Sydney airport after the final leg of their journey home to Australia.

It has also been revealed the executions may have been considered illegal under international law, and an Australian request to submit the case to an international court was ignored, according to reports.

The coffins were carried on Qantas flight 42, which landed in Sydney just before dawn, at 6:13am. Chan's widow, Febyanti Herewila, Sukumaran's parents and siblings, and Australian officials were also on board the flight.

The flight was the last leg in Chan and Sukumaran's journey home to Australia, after they were killed by an Indonesian firing squad on Wednesday morning.

Australia's ambassador asked Indonesia for consent on March 10 to explore whether the execution was illegal before the international court, but Foreign Minister Julie Bishop revealed on Friday she still has not had a reply, according to Fairfax Media.

The bodies of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan are escorted from the tarmac following their arrival
The bodies of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan are
escorted from the tarmac following their arrival
According to reports, Australian officials were given strong legal advice by ANU academic Don Rothwell and Sydney barrister Chris Ward the men's execution were illegal under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The treaty, which was signed by Indonesia in 2006, states the death penalty can only be given for 'the most serious crimes'.

Advice provided to Ms Bishop and the Australian government reportedly stated: 'Drug trafficking does not constitute such a crime when it involves no prima facie harm or violence to another person.'

Before leaving Indonesia, the coffins carrying the bodies of the Australians were carried around Jakarta airport on a forklift, in preparation for the seven-hour flight.

Loved ones of the Bali nine duo who left the country on an earlier flight, including Chan's brother, Michael, and mother, Helen, touched down in Sydney after 10.30am AEST on a Garuda Airlines flight on Friday.


Source: Mail Online, May 1, 2015

Report an error, an omission: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com
Location: Sydney NSW, Australia
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Biden Fails a Death Penalty Abolitionist’s Most Important Test

Published
Image
The mystery of Joe Biden’s views about capital punishment has finally been solved. His decision to grant clemency to 37 of the 40 people on federal death row shows the depth of his opposition to the death penalty. And his decision to leave three of America’s most notorious killers to be executed by a future administration shows the limits of his abolitionist commitment. The three men excluded from Biden’s mass clemency—Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers—would no doubt pose a severe test of anyone’s resolve to end the death penalty. Biden failed that test.
Read more

The Last 24 Hours on Death Row In America

Published
Image
It’s December 18th, 2024. In the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, a guard approaches one of the 200 cells in Death Row and finds a prisoner inside, sitting on the edge of his bed. It’s 3 p.m. Kevin Ray Underwood has 24 hours left to live. Not every state in the US allows – or uses – the death penalty. The ones that do all have different execution protocols. But generally speaking, the timeline features similar events with slight differences in the details.  These protocols can take months of preparation—all so that the day of execution is well… perfectly executed. 
Read more

Arizona | Inmate is asking to be executed sooner than the state wants

Published
Image
PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona death row prisoner asked the state’s highest court to skip legal formalities and schedule his execution earlier than authorities were aiming for, pushing as he had in the past to have his death sentence carried out. Aaron Brian Gunches’ execution would mark a resumption of Arizona’s use of the death penalty after a two-year pause while it reviewed its procedures. In a handwritten court filing this week, Gunches asked the state Supreme Court to schedule his execution for mid-February for his murder conviction in the 2002 killing of Ted Price.
Read more

Congo executes 102 ‘urban bandits’ with 70 more set to be killed, officials say

Published
Image
Some 102 men were executed by the Congolese government in the past week, and 70 more are set to be executed, the country’s minister of justice said Sunday in a statement to the Associated Press. It said the men, aged 18 to 35, were armed robbers and “urban bandits,” locally known as Kulunas, who were executed in northwest Congo at Angenga prison. Forty-five were killed in late December, and the remaining 57 were executed within the last 48 hours. A flight of 70 more people from Kinshasa has arrived at Angenga, but the government hasn’t commented on the status of the prisoners.
Read more

Tennessee refuses to release its new execution manual

Published
Image
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE — Just days after Tennessee announced it had a new manual for executing death row inmates, the state's top prison officials said they aren't going to release the document to the public. The Tennessee Department of Correction had told The Associated Press to file a public records request to obtain a copy of the latest execution manual, known as a protocol. However, the agency this week denied the AP's request, saying it needs to keep the entire document secret to protect the identities of the executioner and other people involved.
Read more

After holiday pause, South Carolina begins scheduling executions again

Published
Image
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s Supreme Court set a Jan. 31 date for the state’s next execution after allowing a pause for the Christmas holidays. The state is working through a backlog of inmates out of appeals but temporarily spared because prison officials couldn’t obtain drugs needed for lethal injection. Marion Bowman Jr., 44, was convicted of murder in the shooting of a friend whose burned body was found in the trunk of her car in Dorchester County in 2001.
Read more

Iran executes three Afghan nationals on first day of 2025

Published
Image
Iran executed three Afghan nationals on the first day of 2025 at Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, according to two human rights watchdog organizations. Halvash reported that Iran executed two individuals from Afghanistan and one Baloch national in Bandar Abbas prison. They were executed without holding a last meeting with their families, the watchdog said. Another human rights watchdog, Henvaw, reported the execution of an Afghan national.
Read more

Syria | New Justice Minister Identified in Video of Women Execution in Idlib in 2015

Published
Image
In two videos circulating on social networks and authenticated by the site Verify.sy, the minister, a former Islamic judge in the Idlib region then under the control of al-Nosra, supervised the killing of women accused of "prostitution." The images are chilling. In one video, a man with a thick beard, wearing a chechia and qami, the traditional Muslim dress, pronounces a death sentence “for corruption and prostitution” next to a woman in  a black niqab  , on her knees. In another, the same man appears next to a woman also in a full veil, on the ground, who implores clemency. A fighter recites  verses from the Quran  and claims that there is “proof” that she committed adultery and prostitution, thus spreading “corruption on earth” . A third man then draws a handgun and shoots her in the head.
Read more

USA | Two federal inmates challenge Biden’s clemency, refuse commutation of death sentences

Published
Image
In an unusual move, two prisoners who are among the 37 federal inmates whose death sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden in December have refused to sign paperwork accepting his clemency action Two federal inmates, Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, are refusing to accept outing US President Joe Biden’s decision to commute their death sentences to life imprisonment without parole. Their refusal comes after Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates last month, sparing them from execution.
Read more