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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.
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Sri Lankan opposition leader calls for reimplementing death penalty against ‘terrorists and drug dealers’

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Sri Lankan Opposition leader, Sajith Premadasa, has called for the reinstatement of the death penalty for “terrorists and drug dealers”.

The call for reimplementing the death penalty, which has currently been on a hiatus for the past 44 years, follows discussions between Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister, Ali Sabry and Premadasa on the removal of constitutional checks within the 20th amendment.

“The death penalty should be brought as regards to those who engage in terrorists’ activities and those who engage in drug trafficking and that is the stance of the SJB”, maintained Premadasa, leader of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB). The SJB currently holds 54 out of 224 seats in parliament.

Sabry questioned the commitment of his party stating that “your own party men have gone before the Supreme Court against the reimplementation of the capital punishment”.

Premadasa responded maintaining that “we [the SJB] do not have a personal standpoint. We have party standpoints”.

Sirisena’s ‘War on Drugs’


As early as July 2018, then-President Sirisena has discussed reintroducing the death penalty to “replicate the success” of President Rodrigo Duterte’s so-called drug war in the Philippines. 

This has sparked intense criticism from over a hundred human rights organisations who stand opposed to the death penalty.

In 2018 Giada Girelli, a human rights analyst for HRW warned “there is no evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent to the drug trade. President Sirisena is making a cynical political move that will violate international human rights law and turn Sri Lanka into a pariah”

Since the election of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Kamal Gunaratne, an accused war criminal, has been appointed as the country’s Defence Secretary and has taken a hard-line on drugs. His promise to “eradicate the drug menace” follows the establishment of a Presidential Task Force (PTF) that provides Sri Lanka officials with a worryingly broad mandate to tackle the drug menace whilst also failing to illustrate clear lines of accountability.

Source: tamilguardian.com, Staff, October 26, 2020


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Location: Sri Lanka
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