FEATURED POST

To U.S. Death Row Inmates, Today's Election is a Matter of Life or Death

Published
Image
You don't have to tell Daniel Troya and the 40 other denizens of federal death row locked in shed-sized solitary cells for 23 hours a day, every day, that elections have consequences. To them, from inside the U.S. government's only death row located in Terre Haute, Indiana, Tuesday's election is quite literally a matter of life and death: If Kamala Harris wins, they live; if Donald Trump wins, they die. "He's gonna kill everyone here that he can," Troya, 41, said in an email from behind bars. "That's as easy to predict as the sun rising."
Post a Comment

In impassioned plea, Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran calls for second chance, asking simply “Please show us mercy”

Published
Myuran Sukumaran
DEATH row inmate Myuran Sukumaran has vowed that his spirit will not be broken by the decision to send him to the firing squad.

In an impassioned plea through a friend, the 33-year-old Bali Nine drug runner called for a second chance, asking simply “Please show us mercy”.

He told a News Corp Australia crew inside Indonesia’s Kerobokan jail for a religious ceremony that he was doing all right despite hearing only a day earlier that his last chance at beating death row, Presidential clemency, had been rejected.

The Sydney man attended the ceremony for a short time and exclusive News Corp photos show Sukumaran spending time in the art workshop, where he has set up and runs art classes and other rehabilitation programs for fellow prisoners.

In a decision signed on December 30 and delivered to Sukumaran on Wednesday, Indonesia’s President, Joko Widodo, rejected his clemency plea.

Sukumaran’s Australian lawyer, Julian McMahon, said the case was not about jeopardising a relationship but about highlighting Sukumaran’s rehabilitation.

“This is not a discussion about jeopardising relationships. What is needed is for our Government, presumably behind closed doors, to fully explain the rehabilitation of Sukumaran. This is such a meritorious argument that it enables our Government to ask humbly, for some clemency,” Mr McMahon said.

“I have full confidence the Foreign Minister and the Prime Minister will do their utmost to win this argument.”

Speaking through friends, Sukumaran told of the misery that his close knit family is suffering and pleaded with Indonesian authorities to look beyond his crime to the good rehabilitative work he is doing behind bars.

“We have been living under the shadow of death for so long and it’s killing my family. It’s eating slowly, it’s a miserable way to live. I feel completely lost about this decision and really don’t know.

“But I won’t let them break my spirit. I will keep doing what is right and at the end of the day when I stand before judgment I will be judged on who I am and what I’ve done,” Sukumaran said.


Source: news.com.au, January 8, 2015

Report an error, an omission: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com
Location: Indonesia
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

To U.S. Death Row Inmates, Today's Election is a Matter of Life or Death

Published
Image
You don't have to tell Daniel Troya and the 40 other denizens of federal death row locked in shed-sized solitary cells for 23 hours a day, every day, that elections have consequences. To them, from inside the U.S. government's only death row located in Terre Haute, Indiana, Tuesday's election is quite literally a matter of life and death: If Kamala Harris wins, they live; if Donald Trump wins, they die. "He's gonna kill everyone here that he can," Troya, 41, said in an email from behind bars. "That's as easy to predict as the sun rising."
Read more

Indiana | Media unlikely to witness first execution in 15 years

Published
Image
Hoosier prison staffers, the condemned’s friends and family members, and the victims’ family members may soon witness the state of Indiana’s first execution since 2009. But it’s likely that no independent witnesses will be included. Joseph Corcoran, who killed four people in 1997, is scheduled to be executed Dec. 18. In Indiana, the death penalty is only available for the crime of murder. It will also be the state’s first time killing a prisoner with pentobarbital instead of a traditional three-drug cocktail.
Read more

Afghanistan | Taliban Carry Out Sixth Public Execution Since 2021

Published
Image
Taliban authorities in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday executed a convicted murderer by gunfire at a sports stadium, in the sixth public execution since their return to power. The condemned man was shot with three bullets to the chest by a member of the victim's family in front of thousands of spectators in Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. The evening before the execution the governor's office called on officials and residents to "attend this event" on social media.
Read more

China | Three child rapists executed after top court approves sentence

Published
Image
Three child rapists were executed on Wednesday after their death sentences were approved by China's top court, showing the country's "zero tolerance" against those harming juveniles. The behaviors of the three criminals, who had sexually assaulted and raped girls for a long time or several times, greatly damaged the physical and mental health of the minors and seriously challenged the legal and moral bottom line, bringing extremely negative effects to society, the Supreme People's Court said.
Read more

Iran hangs man 'for second time' after previous execution halted: NGO

Published
Image
Paris (AFP) – Iran hanged a 26-year-old man for a second time Wednesday months after a previous execution was halted half a minute in, an NGO said. Ahmad Alizadeh was arrested in October 2018 on a murder charge, which he denied, and was sentenced to death, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), which tracks executions in Iran, said in a statement. His death sentence was carried out on April 27 in Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj outside Tehran. But just 28 seconds into the hanging he was brought down from the gallows when the victim's family suddenly shouted "forgiveness". His "lifeless" body was successfully resuscitated and the execution was halted, IHR said.
Read more

U.S. will appeal judge's ruling that 9/11 defendants can plead guilty and avoid the death penalty

Published
Image
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department will appeal a military judge's ruling that plea agreements struck by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and two of his co-defendants are valid, a defense official said Saturday. The ruling this past week voided Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's order to throw out the deals and concluded that the plea agreements were valid. The judge granted the three motions to enter guilty pleas and said he would schedule them for a future date to be determined by the military commission.
Read more

Burkina Faso aims to reinstate death penalty, government source says

Published
Image
Burkina Faso's military regime wants to reinstate the death penalty, which was abolished in the country in 2018, a government source told AFP news agency on Saturday.  The latest execution in Burkina Faso was in 1988, according to rights group Amnesty International. It concerned four leaders accused of an attempted coup d’état to depose president Blaise Compaoré – defence minister Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani, minister of economic promotion Henri Zongo, and two unidentified men.
Read more

Japan rules out ending death penalty despite panel's call for review

Published
Image
The Japanese government on Thursday ruled out abolishing the death penalty, rejecting calls by domestic legal experts for a review amid international pressure to end executions. "The government thinks it is not appropriate to abolish" the death penalty, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a press conference.  "The death penalty is unavoidable for a person who has committed an extremely grave and atrocious crime."
Read more