British grandmother on death row in Bali faces execution as new president pledges 'no mercy' for drug traffickers

Indonesia's seventh President Joko Widodo

Lindsay Sandiford is on death row for smuggling 1.6million pounds worth of cocaine into Bali and all appeals have been denied; Received grim news that Indonesia's new President will show no mercy

British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford, lingering on death row in a Bali jail, has received the grim news that Indonesia's new President will show no mercy and grant no pardons to drug traffickers.

The 57-year-old former legal secretary from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was sentenced to death in January last year for trafficking cocaine worth 1.6 million pounds into Bali and all her appeals have been denied.

Her final hopes of avoiding death by firing squad rest with the Indonesian President - but the newly-elected leader of the world's largest Muslim nation, Joko Widodo, has made it clear he will be taking a tough stance against drug smugglers.

A spokesman for the Attorney General's Department told the Jakarta Globe that Mr Joko was not planning abolish capital punishment any time soon and the President would provide no clemency for people trafficking drugs into the country.

'The President says he will be firm,' said the spokesman. 'We want to send a warning to international drug syndicates that Indonesia doesn't want to be a stopping place, market place or even a place for producers of narcotics.'

It is not known whether the President's 'no mercy' stance will include prisoners who have been on death row for several years - but already the House of Representatives in Jakarta has said it wants the jails emptied of condemned prisoners.

'Show them mercy, or execute them quickly,' said a spokesman for a special committee of the House of Representatives. 'Our jails are bursting and condemned prisoners are not making it any easier.'

Mrs Sandiford will have heard the bad news of the new President's 'no mercy' decision through the prison grapevine. Inmates would have been told of the bad news by visitors and it would have spread immediately to the cells.

As a sign of the President's determination to execute condemned prisoners quickly, the Attorney General's office said today that five inmates currently on death row will be shot within the next four weeks.

Mr Basuni Masyarif, deputy attorney general for general crimes, said the condemned prisoners had all exhausted their chances for appeal as well as failing to secure a pardon from President Joko.

Mrs Sandiford's plea for a pardon is still with the President's office, having been lodged with the former leader, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Of the 5 prisoners who will now be shot before the end of the year, Mr Busuni declined to give details except to say that 2 are Nigerians and all are in prisons away from Bali - so Mrs Sandiford is not among those scheduled for immediate execution.

Indonesia resumed the execution for death row prisoners in 2013, ending a 4-year moratorium. Capital punishment is an option for Indonesian judges as a sentencing option for a number of convictions including drug trafficking, murder, sedition and terrorism.

By law, condemned prisoners must be informed of their execution 72 hours before they are led away to a deserted place and ordered to stand, or sit, in front of the firing squad.

Campaigners against the death penalty said that up to 2013 there were were 113 prisoners awaiting execution, but since then a further 16 have been sentenced to death.

Mrs Sandiford pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle the cocaine through Bali's international airport in 2012 following a flight from Bangkok, claiming that she had been under pressure to carry the narcotics because her adult sons had received death threats.

Click here to read the full article (+ video and photos)

Source: Daily Mail, November 29, 2014

Indiana executes Benjamin Ritchie

Death row inmate Benjamin Ritchie was executed by lethal injection shortly after midnight Tuesday at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to Department of Correction officials. The death sentence was carried out nearly 25 years after Ritchie shot and killed Beech Grove law enforcement officer William Toney. The condemned man had been on death row since his conviction in 2002. Details about the 45-year-old’s execution were sparse. No independent media representatives were permitted to witness the process.

Iran | Singer Amirhossein Tataloo at Grave Risk of Execution for Blasphemy

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 17, 2025: Asghar Jahangir, Iran’s Judiciary spokesman announced today that the blasphemy death conviction of Amirhossein Maghsoudloo, known as Tataloo, has been upheld by the Supreme Court and sent for enforcement. The singer’s defence lawyer, Majid Naghshi, previously reported filing a judicial review request. Reiterating its opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances, Iran Human Rights considers the use of this inhumane punishment for charges such as blasphemy to be a flagrant violation of international human rights law and calls on civil society and the international community not remain silent about Amirhossein Maghsoudlou’s death penalty.

Indiana man set for execution in state's second since 2009

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana man convicted in the 2000 killing of a police officer is set to receive a lethal injection early Tuesday in the state’s second execution in 15 years. Benjamin Ritchie, 45, has been on death row for more than 20 years after being convicted in the fatal shooting of Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney during a foot chase. Unless there’s last-minute court action, Ritchie is scheduled to be executed “before the hour of sunrise” at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to state officials.

South Carolina | Death row inmate seeks to volunteer to die after friends are executed

A South Carolina death row inmate has said he wants to become his own attorney, a decision that would likely lead to his own execution after his best friend and four fellow inmates were put to death in less than a year. A 45-day delay in James Robertson's request was ordered by a federal judge, allowing time for a different lawyer to talk to him and make sure he really wants to fire his own attorneys. The consequences of his decision are likely to be lethal. The 51-year-old Robertson has been on death row since 1999 after killing both his parents in their Rock Hill home. He beat his father with the claw end of a hammer and a baseball bat and stabbed his mother. He then tried to make it look like a robbery in hopes he would get his part of their $2.2 million estate, prosecutors said.

Tennessee executes Oscar Franklin Smith

The state of Tennessee has executed Oscar Franklin Smith, sentenced to death for the 1989 killings of his estranged wife Judith Robirds Smith and her two teenage sons, Chad Burnett and Jason Burnett, in Nashville. Smith, 75, was killed by a fatal dose of the drug pentobarbital injected into his veins at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. He was pronounced dead at 10:47 a.m. May 22. Smith's execution marks a return to capital punishment in Tennessee after the governor instituted a moratorium on the state's most severe penalty. It had been five years since a Tennessee prisoner died by execution and six years since the state killed someone by lethal injection.

Oscar Franklin Smith, Tennessee death row inmate, declines to select execution method

Oscar Franklin Smith, a Tennessee death row inmate scheduled for execution on May 22, will die by lethal injection if the process moves forward. Smith, who was asked to choose between lethal injection and the electric chair, declined to pick, his attorney Kelley Henry, a supervisory assistant federal public defender, said. When an inmate does not choose, the method defaults to lethal injection. It's not the first time Smith has been given this grim decision and declined. That decision to not choose ultimately saved his life for three more years.

Florida executes Glen Rogers

Florida executes suspected serial killer once eyed for possible link to the OJ Simpson case A suspected serial killer once scrutinized for a possible link to the O.J. Simpson case that riveted the nation in the 1990s was executed Thursday in Florida for the murder of a woman found dead in a Tampa motel room. Glen Rogers, 62, received a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke and was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m., authorities said. He was convicted in Florida of the 1995 murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, a 34-year-old mother of 2 he had met at a bar.

Iran | Convicted killer hanged in Tabriz. Execution carried out by his uncle, who was plaintiff in the case

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 10, 2025: Hassan Saei, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Tabriz Central Prison. His execution was carried out by his uncle, who was the plaintiff in the case. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Tabriz Central Prison on 6 May 2025. His identity has been established as Hassan Saei who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court. An informed source told IHRNGO: “Hassan Saei was arrested for the murder of his cousin and his maternal uncle carried out the execution.”

Texas Set to Execute Fourth Inmate of the Year

Matthew Johnson was convicted of the 2012 murder of Nancy Harris in Dallas County. Matthew Johnson’s guilt was never in question. On the stand during his 2013 trial, he admitted to the crime that landed him on death row. The attack—an early morning robbery and murder in a populous Dallas suburb—was also caught on camera. Johnson is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas on May 20, exactly 13 years to the day after he robbed a Fina Whip-In convenience store in Garland and set the store clerk on fire. Johnson was convicted of the murder of Nancy Harris, the 76-year-old clerk.

Texas executes Matthew Lee Johnson

Texas man is executed 13 years to the day of a store robbery in which he set a clerk on fire A Texas man was executed Tuesday evening, 13 years to the day of a convenience store robbery in which he set a clerk on fire in a Dallas suburb. Matthew Lee Johnson, 49, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for the May 20, 2012, attack on 76-year-old Nancy Harris, a great-grandmother he splashed with lighter fluid and set ablaze in the suburb of Garland. Badly burned, she died days afterward.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog