Death Penalty News

Apart from the family members and friends of the prisoners he has represented, Julian McMahon knows about as well as any Australian about the grisly, heartbreaking reality of the death penalty. The Melbourne barrister was the lawyer for Bali 9 members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who faced an Indonesian firing squad in 2015, and for Melbourne man Van Tuong Nguyen, who was put to death for drug trafficking by Singapore in 2005. “The role of the lawyer in those circumstances is to provide steady guidance and not to be overwhelmed by the emotional horror of it all,” McMahon told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. “That comes later. It’s deeply upsetting to participate in. By participating up close you see that not only is the prisoner being killed, but also his family is being destroyed. The ripple effect of an execution is to kill the prisoner, destroy the family and ultimately to harm all those involved in the process.” The issue of capital punishment has naturally peaked in pr...

Julian McMahon is a barrister working in criminal law, often in homicide and terrorism matters. In 2002 Julian was working in Melbourne when a distraught mother was brought to his office. The woman’s son, Van Tuong Ngyuen, had just been sentenced to death, by a judge in Singapore. Van had been found with a few hundred grams of heroin in his possession as he travelled between Vietnam and Australia. Julian quickly gathered a team to represent Van.  Van was executed in 2005.  Since then Julian has worked on many death penalty cases, the most well-known is that of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran of the Bali 9.  He was with the Australians in Indonesia in 2015 when they were taken to be executed. Julian is the President of Capital Punishment Justice Project, an organisation working to have the death penalty abolished worldwide; and was 2016 Victorian Australian of the Year. ➤ Click here to download the audio file (mp3, 25 MB) ➤ Click h...

It has been more than 50 years since the last person was executed on Australian soil, but the Federal Government is being urged to do more to stop the death penalty in other countries. Ronald Ryan was hanged in Victoria in 1967 for the fatal shooting of a prison officer during an escape from Pentridge Prison, but since then, at least 8 Australians have been executed by foreign governments. Former Adelaide woman Lisa Cunningham is now potentially facing the death penalty in the south-western US state of Arizona over the death of her 7-year-old stepdaughter Sanaa. Melbourne lawyer Nicholas Harrington, who established Reprieve Australia, a group that provides legal representation to people at risk of execution, said that while Australia had become much better at pushing for an end to the death penalty, there was "a lot more work that needs to be done". "It's difficult to know how effective we are, as it all happens behind closed doors," Mr Harrin...

News that a Sydney grandmother was sentenced to death for smuggling drugs into Malaysia sparked shock, alarm and condemnation across the globe. However anti-death penalty advocates hope a final appeal and a relaxation of the country's strict anti-drug laws will save Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto from the execution chamber. Ms Exposto, 54, yesterday suffered a cruel blow after a prosecution appeal saw her December acquittal overturned in a Malaysian court . The Cabramatta grandmother now has the right to appeal the sentencing, with her lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah revealing he expects her to win and walk away. Malaysia has a mandatory death penalty for anyone found guilty of carrying more than 50 grams (1.75 ounces) of an illegal drug. The country's politicians last year voted to abolish mandatory death sentences for drug offences but those changes have not yet come into affect, AFP reported. The country also didn't execute anyone for drug offences...

In a kitchen in suburban Melbourne sit two English lawyers who have saved hundreds of convicted criminals from execution. Parvais Jabbar​ and Saul Lehrfreund's​ strike rate of keeping death row clients alive in the Caribbean and Africa is nothing short of extraordinary –  more than 90 per cent, they say, much of it done from a cluttered London office smaller than the kitchen we are sitting in. Across the kitchen table is Melbourne barrister Julian McMahon, an intense, quietly spoken criminal defence advocate. His record is grimmer than his English counterparts, though not from lack of effort. McMahon was recently awarded of Companion of the Order of Australia for his efforts trying to keep Australians on death row alive. His best-known clients, though, are dead. It is likely that McMahon will lose more clients in Asia in the coming years. Teaming up with Parvais and Saul is aimed at changing these odds. In 2002, McMahon and Lex Lasry, QC, led the campaign to ...

Julian McMahon and Paris Aristotle with self-portraits by Myuran Sukumaran Barrister who works pro bono for people on death row and refugee advocate among those recognised in Queen’s birthday list The abolitionist lawyer Julian McMahon and the refugee advocate Paris Aristotle have been recognised in this year’s Queen’s birthday honours list. Julian McMahon, a Melbourne barrister, has been appointed a companion of the Order of Australia for his dedication to defending human rights, in particular advocating for defendants facing the death penalty. The president of Reprieve Australia since 2015, McMahon has worked pro bono for death-row defendants including: Van Tuong Nguyen, hanged in Singapore in 2005; George Forbes, wrongly accused, then exonerated of murder in Sudan in 2007; and the Bali Nine members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who were executed by firing squad in Indonesia in 2015. His work has raised public awareness globally of the death penalty, as mor...

Lawyer Julian McMahon with three self-portraits by Myuran Sukumaran The brother of executed Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran joined community leaders to speak out against the death penalty at the emotional world premiere of an art exhibition featuring his paintings in Campbelltown last night. Chintu Sukumaran choked back tears as he told the hundreds of people who attended the opening night of the Myuran Sukumaran: Another Day in Paradise exhibition that he and his family felt a cross between pride and anger to see his brother's emotive and thought-provoking artworks on display. "We are proud that Myu's work is being shown to the world but we are angry that he is no longer with us," he said. "Our family feel great sadness that his life was cut short so violently. We miss him all the time. "It's important to stand up against the death penalty." Mr Sukumaran, who attended the opening night with mum Raji and sister Brintha, ...

Esteban Ruiz Santiago Investigators say Florida airport shooting suspect Esteban Santiago told them he planned the carnage and purchased a one-way ticket to Fort Lauderdale to carry it out. But it is still unclear why South Florida was targeted. Federal prosecutors filed court documents Saturday detailing airport violence, gun and murder allegations against Santiago. If convicted, he could face the death penalty or life in federal prison, they said. "Santiago fired approximately 10 to 15 rounds of ammunition from his firearm, aiming at his victims' heads. He was described as walking while shooting in a methodical manner," FBI Agent Michael Ferlazzo wrote in court records. Five people died and six more suffered gunshot injuries. "At one point, he exited the Terminal 2 baggage area [and went] onto the sidewalk and then re-entered, still carrying the handgun," agents wrote. Moments later, a Broward County sheriff's deputy approached...

Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan prison's art workshop On November 10, 2012, three days after Julia Gillard flew to Bali to chair a democracy forum with her Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Mary Farrow went on Facebook to send a message to the Australian artist Ben Quilty. Farrow was a supporter of Myuran Sukumaran, the Bali Nine drug smuggler who had applied for presidential clemency four months earlier. Sukumaran, then 31, was facing death. His application said he had been “working to better himself” behind bars. Farrow didn’t know Quilty personally, but had seen his Archibald Prize-winning portrait of Margaret Olley and thought she’d try her luck. So she explained how Sukumaran had taken up painting at Indonesia’s Kerobokan Pri­s­on, and how it was the “challenge of a lifetime”. He was going to enter a portrait of his lawyer, Julian McMahon, into the Archibald, even though he wouldn’t be eligible because he hadn’t lived in Australia du...