[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 3



AUSTRALIA:

Death penalty not for Australia: Rudd


Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he would not consider the death penalty for
Australia, believing it is not a deterrent to major crimes.

Mr Rudd clarified his strong comments on Thursday about the convicted Bali
bomber Amrozi, on death row for his part in the October 2002 terror
killing of 202 people.

Responding to public comments from Amrozi that someone would take revenge
if he was executed, Mr Rudd said: "They deserve the justice that we
delivered to them.

"They are murderers, they are mass murderers and they are also cowards."

Mr Rudd said on Friday he did not mean to endorse the death penalty for
Australia.

"I went on to say that they deserve the justice that they will get, by
which I mean, consistent with the Indonesian judicial system," he told the
Fairfax Radio Network.

"How that pans out in the end is a matter for the Indonesians.

"Our position as you know, has always been one, as a matter of general
policy, of opposition to the death penalty.

"We also have said that we intervene in the case of individual Australians
who are convicted with capital offences abroad and that's been a
bipartisan policy years old."

Mr Rudd said he personally objected to the death penalty because he did
not believe it was a deterrent.

"When it comes to the death penalty in this country, I have never accepted
the argument that it represents the position of a deterrent of itself," he
said.

"Secondly, (there is) the argument that killing another person doesn't
bring back the person to life that they have killed themselves.

"If I was persuaded of the deterrent argument or the other argument then
I'd have a different view.

"But never has a persuasive argument been put to me on that score, and
that has been my consistent position throughout my life."

(source: AAP)