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As clock ticks toward another Trump presidency, federal death row prisoners appeal for clemency

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President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office is putting a spotlight on the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, which houses federal death row. In Bloomington, a small community of death row spiritual advisors is struggling to support the prisoners to whom they minister.  Ross Martinie Eiler is a Mennonite, Episcopal lay minister and member of the Catholic Worker movement, which assists the homeless. And for the past three years, he’s served as a spiritual advisor for a man on federal death row.

Lindsay Sandiford's death row case raised by David Cameron in Indonesia

Lindsay Sandiford in her Kerobokan death-row cell
Lindsay Sandiford in her Kerobokan death-row cell
The Prime Minister, who is on a tour of Indonesia, raises case of British grandmother convicted of dug trafficking

David Cameron has raised the case of Lindsay Sandiford, the British grandmother on death row, with his Indonesian counterpart.

Mr Cameron discussed her case with President Jokowi of Indonesia at a meeting in Jakarta.

Sandiford, who is in her late fifties and originally from Redcar, Teesside, was sentenced to death in January 2013 in Bali after being convicted of trafficking drugs.

She was found with cocaine worth an estimated £1.6 million as she arrived in Bali on a flight from Bangkok, Thailand.

She can expect to be killed by firing squad.

Asked about the case, the Prime Minister said: “On the issue of prisoners, I always raise these issues wherever I travel around the world, and will do so here.

“I want to do it in a way I hope will help the family concerned, and obviously will listen to the concerns of the families and their views before doing these things. That is the right way to proceed - to try and help.”

Sandiford admitted the offences, but claimed she had been coerced by threats to her son’s life. She has appealed against the case without success.

In April the Indonesia authorities executed eight convicted drug smugglers, including two Australians, who had been jailed alongside Sandiford. She said she was “deeply saddened” by their “senseless, brutal” deaths.

Source: The Telegraph, Matthew Holehouse, July 27, 2015

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