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Indonesia | 14 years on death row: Timeline of Mary Jane Veloso’s ordeal and fight for justice

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MANILA, Philippines — The case of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on death row in Indonesia for drug trafficking, has spanned over a decade and remains one of the most high-profile legal battles involving an overseas Filipino worker. Veloso was arrested on April 25, 2010, at Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, after she was found in possession of more than 2.6 kilograms of heroin. She was sentenced to death in October – just six months after her arrest. Indonesia’s Supreme Court upheld the penalty in May 2011.

Idaho governor signs bill to let state execute inmates by firing squad

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Idaho is now the 5th state to reinstate executions by firing squad when lethal injection is unavailable.

Idaho has just become the 5th state to add execution by firing squad as an option for the death penalty.

Idaho Governor Brad Little signed HB 186 -- which would authorize an execution by firing squad when lethal injection is unavailable -- into law just before 3 p.m. Friday, according to his website.

Idaho now joins Utah, South Carolina, Mississippi and Oklahoma that allow firing squads for death row inmates. Idaho has never executed a death row inmate by firing squad, and the method was later abolished in 2009.

In his letter to the speaker of the House, Little wrote that throughout his life in public service he has supported capital punishment when the justice system determines it is the appropriate sentence.

"The families of the victims deserve justice for their loved ones and the death penalty is a way to bring them peace," he wrote. Little said it is the responsibility of the state to ensure that the law, the death penalty, is carried out when it is authorized.

Idaho has not been able to obtain lethal injection drugs, an attorney for the Idaho Attorney General's Office previously said in a House committee.

Gerald Pizzuto, convicted of murdering 2 people in McCall in 1985, was sentenced to death and set to be executed last year -- but the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) called it off due to lack of the drugs needed for the execution.

Regardless, the Idaho Attorney General's Office ordered Pizzuto to be sentenced to death anyway within 30 days of the order on March 23. Then, HB 186 was introduced.

The IDOC again called off Pizzuto's execution.

Jeff Ray, IDOC spokesperson, wrote in an email that IDOC suspended the execution procedures until such time they "anticipate a change in the material ability to carry out an execution."

"IDOC is not in possession of the chemicals necessary to carry out an execution by lethal injection. Efforts to lawfully source chemicals are ongoing," Ray wrote.

In Little's letter, he said he "has not given up" on Idaho's ability to obtain the lethal injection drugs needed for an execution. But, Little did say he believes the state must minimize the stress of the personnel who will be carrying out firing squad executions -- a concern some Idaho senators raised during the debate of HB 186 on the floor.

Source: KTVB news, Staff, March 25, 2023

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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."

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