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Arkansas Supreme Court Decision Allows New DNA Testing in Case of the ​“West Memphis Three,” Convicted of Killing Three Children in 1993

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On April 18, 2024, the Arkansas Supreme Court decided 4-3 to reverse a 2022 lower court decision and allow genetic testing of crime scene evidence from the 1993 killing of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis. The three men convicted in 1994 for the killings were released in 2011 after taking an Alford plea, in which they maintained their innocence but plead guilty to the crime, in exchange for 18 years’ time served and 10 years of a suspended sentence. 

Jakarta ready to execute 5 more drug traffickers. Church calls for addiction treatment

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The prosecutor general announces the imminent execution of more people sentenced to death for drug trafficking. Hardline of Justice chiefs supported by President Jokowi. Bishops, opposed to the death penalty, call for investment in adduction prevention and awareness campaign.

The Department of the Attorney General (DAG) in Indonesia has announced a second round of executions for prisoners held on death row on drug trafficking charges. Regardless of the protests of national and international activists and human rights groups the Justice system - with the support of the "reformist" president Joko Widodo Jokowi - is pressing ahead with its hard line against drug trafficking.

In recent weeks, Jakarta has already executed six people, including four foreigners, for crimes related to drugs; in the coming days, although no date has yet been set, death row 5 detainees will be executed. They come from France, Ghana, the Philippines, Australia and Indonesia.

Yesterday, the attorney general H.M. Prasetyo, at a Parliamentary hearing, confirmed the imminence of the executions; the department is finalizing the details, also in view of the difficulties caused by bad weather and rain. "We are still looking at the ideal place [for the execution]." The country, the official added, is keeping up its rigorous line against drugs and its commitment to punish the big traffickers who move the pawns of international trade with the maximum penalty.

Previously President Jokowi emphasized that convicted drug traffickers will not be pardoned; an iron fist, added the head of state, is the only way to fight the scourge of drugs in Indonesia, a nation that over time has become an "important crossroads" in the trade.

Recently, the National Agency for Drug Trafficking (BNN) published a report which shows that at least 5 million Indonesians are "addicted" - to various degrees - to drugs; a problem that worries even the Indonesian bishops, which opposes the hard-line desired by the president but, at the same time, calls for interventions in the prevention and combating of drugs.

Last year, the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI) launched a pastoral plan for the rehabilitation of drug addicts, supported by the BNN. Speaking to AsiaNews on the occasion of the launch, the archbishop of Yogyakarta Msgr. Johannes Pujasumarta, Kwi secretary general, warned that "something must be done to solve the problem."

Source: Asia News, January 29, 2015

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Location: Indonesia
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