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

Arizona | Man who murdered pastor crucifixion style requests plea deal after parents killed in plane crash

Adam Sheafe, the California man who admitted to killing a New River, Arizona, pastor in a crucifixion-style attack, has asked prosecutors to offer him a plea deal that would result in a natural life sentence rather than the death penalty he had previously sought. Advisory council attorneys representing Sheafe sent a formal plea offer to prosecutors this week, about two weeks after his father and stepmother died in a plane crash at Marana Airport on April 8, according to 12 News. Sheafe, 51, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of William Schonemann, 76, pastor of New River Bible Church, who was found dead inside his home last April.

US Department of Justice announces decision to resume federal executions

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Friday that it will resume the federal use of capital punishment and that it is seeking death sentences against 44 defendants. DOJ also said that it will use firing squads, electrocution, or nitrogen asphyxiation if the drug used in lethal injection is unavailable. The announcement follows the Restoring and Strengthening the Federal Death Penalty report, published on April 24. The report is especially critical of the moratorium on federal executions, ordered by Attorney General Merrick Garland in July 2021, to remain until the death penalty could be conducted “fairly and humanely.” Garland was concerned about the federal lethal injection protocol, which uses only one drug, pentobarbital, and the possibility that it causes “unnecessary pain and suffering.” In response to Garland’s moratorium and concerns, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 prisoners on federal death row, leaving only three prisoners.

China | Man sentenced to death for murder executed in Yunnan

Tian Yongming, who was initially sentenced for a series of violent crimes and then had his sentence changed to death early this year, has been executed in Yunnan province following approval from China's top court. The execution was carried out by the Intermediate People's Court in Yuxi, Yunnan, on Tuesday, with local prosecutors supervising the process. Before the execution, Tian was allowed to meet with his family members. The case dates back to September 1996, when Tian was sentenced to nine years in prison for the rape and attempted murder of his sister-in-law. After his release on July 15, 2002, he plotted revenge against the woman. On the night of Nov 13, 2002, he broke into her home armed with a knife.

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...

Florida executes Chadwick Scott Willacy

STARKE, Fla. -- A Florida man who set his neighbor on fire after she returned from work to find him burglarizing her home was executed Tuesday evening. Chadwick Scott Willacy, 58, received a three-drug injection and was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1990 killing of Marlys Sather. It was Florida's fifth execution this year. The curtain to the execution chamber went up promptly at the scheduled 6 p.m. time, and the lethal injection got underway two minutes later, after Willacy made a brief statement.

Iran to execute first woman linked to mass protests after ‘forced confessions’

Bita Hemmati and three others have been sentenced to death for 'collusion' and 'propaganda.' Advocates claim the charges are baseless, citing a secretive process and state-televised interrogations. Iranian authorities are preparing to execute Bita Hemmati, the first woman sentenced to death in connection with the mass protests in Tehran in late December and January, according to the US-based non-profit the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Judge Iman Afshari, of Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, sentenced Hemmati, her husband, Mohammadreza Majidi Asl, and Behrouz Zamaninezhad, and Kourosh Zamaninezhad to death on the charge of “operational action for the hostile government of the United States and hostile groups,” in addition to discretionary imprisonment period of five years on the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security.”

Tennessee | Man set to be executed files motion claiming DNA evidence will exonerate him

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Attorneys for death row inmate Tony Carruthers filed a motion in Shelby County Criminal Court seeking immediate DNA testing on evidence they claim will prove his innocence in a 1994 triple murder. Carruthers is scheduled for execution on May 12. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murders of 24-year-old Marcellos Anderson, 17-year-old Delois Anderson, and 21-year-old Frederick Scarborough. Prosecutors at trial alleged the victims were buried alive in a Memphis cemetery as part of a drug-related robbery.

Florida Schedules Two Executions for Late April

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis has directed the Florida Department of Corrections to move forward with two executions scheduled for late April 2026, marking a significant ramp-up in the state's use of capital punishment. The scheduled deaths of Chadwick Willacy and James Ernest Hitchcock follow a series of landmark judicial rulings that have kept both men on death row for decades.

Singapore executes man for trafficking 1kg of cannabis

SINGAPORE — Singaporean authorities executed Omar bin Yacob Bamadhaj at Changi Prison on Thursday, April 16, 2026, following his 2019 conviction for importing 1,009.1 grams of cannabis. Bamadhaj, 41, though some reports have cited his age as 46, was arrested on July 12, 2018, during a routine search at the Woodlands Checkpoint. Officers discovered the narcotics wrapped in plastic and hidden within his vehicle as he attempted to enter Singapore from Malaysia. Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, the threshold for the mandatory death penalty involving cannabis is 500 grams, a limit this shipment exceeded by more than double.

Florida | Man avoids death penalty in Daytona Beach triple murder

Jerome Anderson shot and killed Antoine Melvin, 42, John Burch, 65, and Patrick Lassiter, 35, in 2023. A man pleaded no contest to a triple-murder in Daytona Beach and was sentenced April 20 to three consecutive life terms in prison as part of a plea deal in which he avoided a possible death sentence. Jerome Anderson, 41, was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in the 2023 triple-slaying. Anderson pleaded no contest to the three first-degree murder charges April 20 and, in exchange, Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak agreed not to continue to pursue the death penalty.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog