Indonesia | More Indonesians Oppose Death Penalty: Research

Jakarta. While the majority of the Indonesian people are in favor of death penalty, their support for it declines as they learn more about the scope of judicial killing or are shown with specific circumstances such as unfair trials, according to a public opinion research by Oxford University whose results were released on Wednesday.

There are currently more than 350 death row inmates in Indonesia, with convicted drug traffickers accounting for around 60 %.

The research highlighted that the public lacked knowledge about the death penalty; only 2 percent considered themselves “very well informed”, and only 4 percent stated that they were “very concerned” about the issue.

It found that of 1,515 respondents, 69 % initially favored retention of the death penalty -- although only 35 % felt ‘strongly’ in favor of retention.

However, “when presented with realistic scenarios on the application of the death penalty, there was a dramatic decline in the public’s support for its retention,” according Professor Carolyn Hoyle of Oxford University's The Death Penalty Research Unit.

“Of those who had initially supported retention, 70% changed their minds when shown a variety of specific circumstances where the death penalty could be applied,” she said in a statement.

Up to 1/2 of death penalty supporters agreed to change their mind under certain circumstances: the death penalty was applied unfairly (47 %), wrongful convictions occur (46 %), there was no deterrent effect (38 %), or religious leaders showed support for abolition (37 %).

The research was conducted in 2019-20 in partnership with the University of Indonesia and law firm LBH Masyarakat which provides pro bono legal services.

Opinion Formers

Initial views from the public were in contrast to those of the so-called opinion formers, a group of 40 selected respondents considered influential in shaping or responding to public opinion across Indonesia.

The research found that 67 % of opinion formers immediately supported abolition of the death penalty, with the majority “strongly” in favor of it.

“While 33 % of opinion leaders were in favor of retention, only half ‘strongly favored’ it,” the report says.

Both the public and opinion formers stated the same reasons for favoring abolition: the risk and possibility of wrongful conviction or execution, and a disbelief in the death penalty’s deterrent effect.

On the other hand, the main rationale for supporting the death penalty across both groups “was a belief in the punishment’s deterrent effect against serious crime, with a particular focus on drug crime”.

The research team, however, noted that such a notion remains unsubstantiated.

“There has been no nuanced research carried out to-date that proves the deterrent effect of capital punishment in relation to drug crime,” it says.

“These findings show that opinion formers in Indonesia want the death penalty to be abolished and public opinion is no barrier to abolition.”

Last Executions

Judicial executions were last conducted in 2016, when 4 convicted drug traffickers including 3 foreign nationals were put to death by firing squad.

One of them is Humprey Jefferson, a Nigerian citizen who was sentenced to death after police found 1.7 kilograms of heroin at his restaurant in Jakarta.

“This research got to the root of the problem that makes capital punishment no longer relevant in Indonesia,” Afif Abdul Qoyim, a lawyer for Jefferson, said in response to the Oxford University survey.

He alleged wrongful conviction against his client, steaming from "improper police investigation" when they searched Jefferson’s property in August 2003.

“Jeff was cooperative and willingly present at the scene during the search. He could have fled if he wanted,” Abdul said, calling his former client by nickname.

“The narcotics found at his property didn’t belong to him, but the judges wouldn’t take that into consideration, leading to his execution,” he said, adding that racial sentiment could have influenced the judges.

Murders and terrorism are other crimes punishable by deaths under the Indonesian criminal justice system.

Source: Jakarta Globe, Staff, June, 2021

🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

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

California | Becerra vows to extend moratorium despite past support for capital punishment

SACRAMENTO—Democrat Xavier Becerra defended the death penalty while serving as California’s attorney general, a punishment his office actively sought in the case of a gunman convicted of an Orange County mass shooting, but as the front-running candidate for governor, he has vowed to block executions if elected in November. Becerra said he will extend the blanket reprieve for all death row inmates that Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted by executive order in 2019, saying he supported “moving our state away from a costly, flawed system that disproportionately impacts Black and brown communities and too often gets it wrong.”

Iran | Afghan Citizen Executed in Wheelchair Due to Severe Mobility Disability

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Iranian authorities have reportedly executed an Afghan citizen, identified as Valijan Nourzay, at the central prison in Rafsanjan, according to the human rights organization Hengaw. Hengaw said in a statement on Sunday, September 6, that Nourzay was executed early Wednesday last week at Rafsanjan Central Prison. According to the organization, Nourzay had a severe mobility disability and was executed while in a wheelchair. Hengaw, citing informed sources, reported that Nourzay had been pursued by Iranian authorities three years ago over an alleged murder. He was reportedly seriously wounded after Iranian security forces opened fire on him in Rafsanjan before being arrested and later sentenced to death.

California | He spent 19 years on death row. His conversion to Judaism helped him endure

Johnny Morales struggled to find sleep. He dozed off for a few moments, but officers came to his death row cell and woke him a little after midnight. They needed to inventory and box up his belongings. He was leaving San Quentin. Hands cuffed behind his back, he walked across the empty upper yard in the dim gray hours before daylight. An officer walked alongside him step for step, black latex-gloved fingers holding onto Morales’s arm. For almost 20 years, Morales could only experience the world outside his 4-by-11 foot cell in the condemned housing unit like this—chained and escorted by officers. Security protocols required all death row residents be handcuffed or shackled any time they were out in open space with staff.

He Spent 27 Years on Death Row as a Wrongfully Convicted Man. What Comes Next?

23-hour solitary confinement. 115-degree heat. Jimmie Duncan is haunted by the decades he spent in Louisiana’s Angola Prison—and how, even after being released, he still isn’t truly free. Jimmie “Chris” Duncan wiped the sweat off his forehead as he assessed his temporary home from the parking lot of a rundown motel in central Louisiana. Sure, there’s drug dealing and prostitution, he said on a recent summer afternoon. And he suspected his neighbors were cooking meth on a floor below the room he paid $350 a week to rent.

Egypt TV presenter and 11 others sentenced to death in major drugs case

Egyptian television presenter Sarah Khalifa and 11 others have been sentenced to death by hanging after being convicted of drug trafficking and rape, while nine defendants received life sentences and seven were acquitted. Egyptian television presenter Sarah Khalifa, 39, has been sentenced to death by hanging along with 11 other defendants after being found guilty in a drugs case involving a criminal gang accused of importing ingredients used to manufacture narcotics for sale.

Florida executes Daniel Owen Conahan Jr.

In Florida’s 15th execution this year, man put to death for killing linked to ‘Hog Trail Murders’ A Florida man convicted in one of a series of suspected killings that became known as the “Hog Trail Murders” in the 1990s was put to death Thursday, becoming the state’s 15th person executed this year. Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. after receiving a 3-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He had been sentenced to die for the 1996 kidnapping and strangling of Richard Allen Montgomery, whose mutilated body was found in a wooded southwest Florida area where authorities found the remains of at least 6 people over a 3-year span.

Arizona AG seeks execution date for man convicted in 1995 trooper killing

Trooper Bob Martin was killed during a traffic stop on the Beeline highway; execution for his killer could be as soon as January PHOENIX (AZFamily)—The Arizona Attorney General is asking for an execution date to be set for a man convicted in the killing of an Arizona State Trooper over 30 years ago. On Aug. 15, 1995, Trooper Bob Martin was shot and killed while performing a traffic stop along the Beeline Highway.

Ex-corrections officials urge governor to commute Kansas death sentences

Former Kansas corrections officials are urging Governor Laura Kelly to grant clemency to the state's death row inmates. Former Kansas Corrections Secretary Roger Werholtz has several reasons why he thinks the state should abolish the death penalty. Werholtz, who served as secretary from 2002 to 2010 and returned on an interim basis in 2019, uses his discussions with peers and family members of victims as well as experiences of seeing wrongly convicted people getting exonerated as his guiding points.

Florida executes Harold Gene Lucas

Florida state officials executed 74-year-old Harold Gene Lucas by lethal injection on Tuesday evening, concluding a 50-year legal saga stemming from the 1976 murder of a 16-year-old girl in Bonita Springs. STARKE, Fla. -- A man convicted of killing a teenage girl who rejected his romantic advances and wounding two of her friends was put to death Tuesday in the first of three executions planned this month in Florida. Harold Gene Lucas, 74, was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, authorities said. He was sentenced to death for the 1976 shooting attack on Jill Piper and the wounding of her friends, Richard Byrd Jr. and Terri Rice.

Inside and outside Oklahoma execution chamber, Tulsans stand on different sides of death penalty debate

Sheriff Vic Regalado and Father Bryan Brooks, pastor at the Church of Saint Benedict, are two men of influence in Tulsa County. They live different lives—one enveloped in faith, the other elected to lead a law enforcement agency of more than 600. Both were brought together by the death penalty. The men believe it is their duty to support families of victims but land on different sides of the aisle when it comes to executions. Regalado is in support of the death penalty, saying it is part of the criminal justice system and brings closure to the families of murder victims.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog