FEATURED POST

Activists Call on President Biden to End the Federal Death Penalty Before Leaving Office

Published
Image
A conversation with Death Penalty Action Co-founder and Executive Director Abe Bonowitz. Now that Joe Biden is a lame duck president, activists are holding him accountable to make good on his promise to end the federal death penalty during his remaining six months as president. Biden’s election campaign in 2020 had pledged to end the federal death penalty and incentivize the remaining 27 states that still allow executions to do the same. While he made history as the first president in the United States to openly oppose the death penalty, there has been no movement to actually end federal executions during his nearly four years in office.

Bali Nine: Indonesian president defends refusal to grant clemency

Published
President Widodo
Indonesian president Joko Widodo has defiantly defended his reasons for refusing to let two Australians and other convicted drug smugglers off death row.

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the ringleaders of the so-called Bali Nine group of heroin smugglers, have been denied presidential pardons and are due to face a firing squad this month.

A lawyer representing them filed the application for an appeal against Mr Widodo's clemency refusal at the State Administrative Court in East Jakarta on Tuesday.

Mr Widodo, who has a policy of denying clemency for all drug offenders, said he had rejected 64 bids for clemency and was not forgiving any drug criminal.

"Every day 50 people die from narcotics," Mr Widodo said at an Islamic congress in Yogyakarta.

"Then there's 4.5 million drug addicts who need rehabilitation. This is a very big problem."

Those figures have been disputed as being based on dubious calculations, but the president has relied on them to justify his flat refusal.

"That's why the presidential clemency requests that came onto my desk — there were 64 — I signed all of them, but rejected them," he said.

"The decision to give the death sentence wasn't the president's, it was the judge in the court.

"The president is just not giving forgiveness, not giving any clemency."

Indonesia's attorney-general Muhammad Prasetyo said this week he expected the challenge to fail, as clemency rejection is the president's right.

"Clemency is a prerogative right that cannot be obstructed by anybody, can not be challenged by anybody. It's a prerogative right," Mr Prasetyo said.

Lawyers say they dispute process, not result

But one of the Australian men's lawyers, Ponti Azani, said they were disputing the process, not the result.

"We don't mean to force the president to accept the clemency requests," he said.

"But if he had to reissue the clemency, if ruled by this court, we want him to do assessments person by person — in this case Andrew and Myuran's."

It is a last-ditch effort to get a stay on the executions and force the president to reconsider the cases individually.


Source: 7 News, February 12, 2015 (local time)

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

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Kuwait | Six Executed, Female Convict Spared at Last Minute

Published
Image
KUWAIT CITY, Sept 5: This Thursday morning at exactly 7:00 am, the Criminal Execution Prosecution carried out the death penalty for six convicts at the Central Prison. Among those executed were three Kuwaiti citizens, two Iranians, and one Pakistani. However, the execution of a Kuwaiti woman, convicted of killing her friend, was withdrawn at the last moment after the victim's heirs accepted blood money and pardoned her. 
Read more

Idaho death row inmate Thomas Creech claims second execution attempt would violate Eighth Amendment

Published
Image
The execution of Thomas Creech failed in February when a prison medical team was unable to establish an IV line to carry out the lethal injection. BOISE, Idaho — After a failed execution in February, Idaho's longest-serving death row inmate said a second attempt to execute him would be "cruel and unusual punishment" - violating his Eighth Amendment rights.
Read more

South Carolina | Inmate asks to delay execution, says co-defendant who blamed him for killing had secret deal

Published
Image
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — An inmate set to be executed in South Carolina in three weeks wants the state Supreme Court to delay the execution so his lawyers can argue his co-defendant who testified against him lied about having no plea deal in exchange for his testimony. Attorneys for Freddie Owens also said in court papers filed late Friday that a juror saw an electronic stun device Owens had to wear in court to assure good behavior and a judge never talked about why he had to wear it.
Read more

Activists Call on President Biden to End the Federal Death Penalty Before Leaving Office

Published
Image
A conversation with Death Penalty Action Co-founder and Executive Director Abe Bonowitz. Now that Joe Biden is a lame duck president, activists are holding him accountable to make good on his promise to end the federal death penalty during his remaining six months as president. Biden’s election campaign in 2020 had pledged to end the federal death penalty and incentivize the remaining 27 states that still allow executions to do the same. While he made history as the first president in the United States to openly oppose the death penalty, there has been no movement to actually end federal executions during his nearly four years in office.
Read more

An art exhibit reckons with Alabama’s death penalty toll

Published
Image
The state of Alabama executed Gary Brown more than two decades ago for his connection to a fatal stabbing. But at a recent Sunday service in Birmingham, you could hear him preaching. In the bustling foyer of the Unitarian Universalist Church, an archival recording of one of Brown’s sermons in prison thrummed under patrons’ lively chatter. Visitors stood with their necks craned back, reading rows of letters fixed to a wall. The display was part of an art exhibit that’s been traveling through Alabama this summer. Using art and archival materials, “The Art of Resistance: Documenting Alabama’s Death Row” aims to spark conversations about the state’s use of capital punishment.
Read more

Iran | Executions in Khorramabad, Mahabad

Published
Image
Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 30, 2024: Meisam Hosseinkhani, a Kurdish man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed in Khorramabad Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a Kurdish man was executed in Khorramabad (Parsilion) Central Prison on 28 August. His identity has been established as 22-year-old Meisam Hosseinkhani from Kouhdasht. He was arrested for murder with a cold weapon (knife) during a group fight three years ago and sentenced to qisas.
Read more

Florida executes Loran Cole

Published
Image
Florida executes man convicted of killing college student, raping victim’s sister in national forest  A Florida man convicted of killing a college freshman and raping the murder victim’s older sister while the siblings camped in a national forest 30 years ago was executed Thursday.  Loran Cole, 57, received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. at Florida State Prison for the 1994 killing of the 18-year-old student. Cole also was serving t2life sentences for rape.
Read more

USA | Trump says he will end moratorium on federal executions on his first day in office, and use full force of the law to go after major drug dealers and cop killers

Published
Image
Trump sat down with DailyMail.com for an interview at his Mar-a-Lago home. He talked about the campaign and his plans for day one in the White House. Donald Trump says he will end the Justice Department moratorium on executions on his first day in office, and use the full force of the law to go after major drug dealers and cop killers. The Trump campaign sees crime, in general, and Kamala Harris's record as a prosecutor in California, in particular, as areas where they can inflict damage on her presidential bid.
Read more

Iran’s Top Court Upholds Death Penalty for Guard Volunteer over 2022 Protest Killing

Published
Image
TEHRAN: The Supreme Court of Iran has upheld a death sentence awarded to a member of the all-volunteer wing of the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard who stormed a house during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini and killed a 60-year-old man, said a lawyer on Tuesday. The capital punishment awarded to the Basij member marks a rare moment for Iran to hold accountable its security forces. It is pertinent to mention that more than 500 people were killed and over 22,000 were detained in the 2022 protests.
Read more

The New York Times Editorial Board Argues United States ​“Does Not Need the Death Penalty”

Published
Image
In an August 31, 2024, editorial from The New York Times , the newspaper’s editorial board writes that capital punishment is “immoral, unconstitutional and useless as a deterrent to crime,” and asserts that President Joseph Biden should follow through with his campaign pledge to end the federal death penalty.  The Times believes “it would be an appropriate and humane finale to his presidency for Mr. Biden to fulfill that pledge and try to eliminate the death penalty for federal crimes.” Since 2000, public support for the death penalty has steadily declined, as have the number of new death sentences and executions. 
Read more