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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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Indonesia denies clemency to smugglers

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Australia needs to send a clear, consistent message to Indonesia opposing the death penalty after its president rejected a series of clemency pleas by five foreign drug smugglers, a lawyer for one of the Bali Nine says.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono refused the appeals by the five - from Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan and Brazil - in a further blow for six Australians on death row for the same crime.

Indonesian authorities are now pushing ahead with the execution of the five, newspaper Pos Kota reported.

Darwin barrister Colin McDonald QC, who visited 21-year-old Bali Nine death row drug mule Scott Rush in prison on the weekend, said the failed clemency bids heightened the need for Australia to send a clear message opposing the death penalty.

The six Australians plan to appeal to Yudhoyono for clemency if their final legal appeals fail.

"It really is essential that Australia speaks consistently in relation to the death penalty, and we express our opposition forcefully," McDonald told AAP.

Source: AAP
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