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Indonesia | 14 years on death row: Timeline of Mary Jane Veloso’s ordeal and fight for justice

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MANILA, Philippines — The case of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on death row in Indonesia for drug trafficking, has spanned over a decade and remains one of the most high-profile legal battles involving an overseas Filipino worker. Veloso was arrested on April 25, 2010, at Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, after she was found in possession of more than 2.6 kilograms of heroin. She was sentenced to death in October – just six months after her arrest. Indonesia’s Supreme Court upheld the penalty in May 2011.

Arkansas AG seeks executions for 7 felons

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas' attorney general asked Gov. Mike Beebe to set execution dates for seven death row inmates, according to letters obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel noted in the letters sent to Beebe late Thursday that six of the seven inmates are challenging the state's new lethal injection law and protocol, which calls for Arkansas to use a drug that has never before been used for lethal injections in the U.S.

However, McDaniel said there aren't any court orders in place preventing executions of those seven prisoners.

The Arkansas Supreme Court said earlier this year that such orders were dissolved when the justices struck down the state's lethal injection law in 2012. The court ruled that, in the old law, state legislators had ceded too much control over execution procedures to the Department of Correction.

So, legislators this year enacted a new law that says the state must use a lethal dose of a barbiturate. However, the new law leaves it up to the Department of Correction to pick the drug.

The AP reported last month that the state plans to use phenobarbital, which is used to treat seizures, in lethal injections from now on.

Source: AP, December 27, 2013
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