[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 1



AUSTRALIA:

Why Australians should pursue a global ban on the death penalty



As the grieving families of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran await the return 
of their loved ones' bodies from the killing field of Nusakambangan island 
prison in Indonesia, there are a number of lessons we should start to learn.

It goes without saying that for most Australians, and indeed most citizens of 
functioning and compassionate democracies, the death penalty achieves nothing.

Capital punishment serves at best as a cruel and cynical domestic political 
prop that plays only to the baser and more insecure elements of a society 
worried about issues of law and order or sovereign stability.

Execution does not reform, and neither, as the statistics so sadly and 
endlessly demonstrate, does it deter those people willing to take a risk 
thinking it will never happen to them. In fact, in many instances the threat of 
capital punishment is likely to exacerbate violence - particularly against law 
enforcement personnel - at the hands of criminals who calculate they have 
nothing to lose by resisting capture via whatever means they can.

And when it comes to crimes such as drug smuggling - for which Sukumaran and 
Chan paid the ultimate price - for many people a higher risk simply equates to 
a higher potential return.

For Australia, a country which does not bestow upon its judicial system the 
power of life and death, the Bali 9 executions have been wrenching at both a 
personal and a diplomatic level.

We are not alone though, and must remember that Sukumaran and Chan were just 2 
of 8 prisoners executed in Indonesia this week, and they are just a handful of 
the thousands of haunted men and women on death row in prisons around the 
world.

Our last-ditch diplomatic efforts were all they could have been, but perhaps we 
could have done more, not only for Sukumaran and Chan, but for others in the 
same position.

In the Bali 9 context maybe a more concerted and behind-the-scenes diplomatic 
push for clemency while a stronger and friendlier Indonesian president in 
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was in power might have achieved a humane outcome.

If we are prepared to speak out though for Sukumaran and Chan, we must also 
speak for all who are facing the barbarity of execution.

If not, Australia risks its message on capital punishment being viewed as a 
complaint born of parochial convenience rather than a consistent and widely 
prosecuted position of ethics and humanity.

It would be hoped, if there is any positive to come from events of recent days, 
that those 8 prisoners strapped to wooden boards in front of an Indonesian 
firing squad in the middle of the night may serve as a touchstone for a more 
consistent global push for an end to this barbarity.

(source: Courier-Mail)

*********************

Bali 9 duo shown mercy... after Catholic university names scholarships after 
them in bid to abolish death penalty - but PM says move is 'questionable' 
Australian Catholic University will award undergraduate scholarships

Indonesian students will be eligible to apply and study in Australia

Must submit an essay on the theme of 'the sanctity of human life'

It has surprised the Prime Minister who believes the move is 'questionable'

Mr Abbott told radio 2GB that it was an 'odd thing for the university to do'

Vice-Chancellor hopes it will help in a 'small but deeply symbolic way'

ACU is opposed to the death penalty and campaigned for mercy

Chan and Sukumaran were executed in Indonesia on Wednesday



An Australian university has announced plans to award 2 scholarships to 
Indonesian students in recognition of reformed Bali 9 ringleaders Andrew Chan 
and Myuran Sukumaran.

The Australian Catholic University (ACU) was part of the global campaign that 
advocated for mercy for the 2 Sydney men before they were killed by firing 
squad on Nusakambangan island, in Indonesia, on Wednesday.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Greg Craven said ACU is opposed to the death penalty 
and hopes that the scholarships will help in a 'small but deeply symbolic way' 
to be part of the 'ongoing contribution toward the eventual abolition of the 
death penalty in Indonesia'.

But the move has been labelled as 'questionable' by Prime Minister Tony Abbott 
who believes the university are sending a 'very unusual message.'

The Prime Minister told Sydney radio 2GB that while forgiveness was part of the 
Christian faith, another part called for people to be their best selves and 
that this was an 'odd thing for the university to do.'

'We know that they were repentant, we know that they were rehabilitated, we 
know that they seem to have met their fate with a kind of nobility and all of 
that is admirable,' Mr Abbott said.

'But whether that justifies what has apparently been done is open to profound 
question.'

Chan and Sukumaran spent a decade behind bars in Bali for their role in trying 
to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin into Australia from Indonesia in 2005. During that 
10 years, Chan became an ordained Christian priest and Sukumaran a talented 
artist who conducted art classes to other inmates in Kerobokan jail.

'While our calls for mercy for Mr Chan and Mr Sukumaran were ultimately 
rejected, we strongly believe that hope remains for prisoners around the world 
who face a similar fate,' Mr Craven said.

'The death penalty is a violent, cruel and immoral punishment that has no place 
in our society. And yet it persists. In memory of Mr Chan and Mr Sukumaran, 
each of us can take action to end this punishment.'

'These will be awarded to academically qualified applicants upon the submission 
of an essay on the theme of 'the sanctity of human life",' Mr Craven said.

'The scholarships would be a fitting tribute to the reformation, courage and 
dignity of the 2 men.'

Sukumaran and Chan wanted their executions to have a greater meaning and hoped 
the awareness would bring an end to the death penalty, their lawyer has 
revealed.

Julian McMahon saw the Australians hours before their executions, when they 
were determined to be strong as they said their goodbyes to their families.

Mr McMahon, who has spent years defending and raising awareness of their 
rehabilitation since their crime 10 years ago, remained on Nusakambangan island 
and heard the shots that killed them on Wednesday.

He spoke to the witnesses and confirmed reports the pair were concerned for the 
6 other prisoners there with them.

Chan, who wore the jersey of NRL club Penrith, did a roll call of their names 
to check each was okay. Both men led the group in song.

'In dying really they did their best thing that they did in their life because 
for the last few years of their life their intention was to improve things for 
other people,' Mr McMahon said on Thursday.

'They wanted to support the people around them and to make it clear that 
executing prisoners was a fundamentally wrong thing to do.

'They would be pleased that there was so much publicity surrounding their 
deaths because they want their deaths to have some purpose and meaning far 
greater than simply the story being about them.

'They want to help other prisoners on death row in other places.

'They want people ... to care enough about what has happened to do something 
about the death penalty.'

Mr McMahon said he realised they weren't perfect men but said in recent years 
they had become wonderful.

They took pride that important Australians and ordinary people supported them 
because it validated for them the hard work they'd done to improve themselves.

It had been a battle to live well in prison, the lawyer said. For example, 
Sukumaran had to constantly defend his prison art workshop from drug gangs.

The pair's lawyer said their death shows the 'complete and absolute futility of 
state-sponsored killing of prisoners'

Julian McMahon, the lawyer for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, said they 
wanted their executions to have a greater meaning and hoped the awareness would 
bring an end to the death penalty.

The pair's many acts of kindness are only now becoming known, including an 
orphanage Chan helped establish and the way Sukumaran defended the women's 
block from gang members when guards were absent during a riot at Kerobokan.

Mr McMahon said their families appreciated the professionalism of the guards in 
Nusakambangan's Besi prison who were kind to the men in weeks that could have 
been unbearable.

The pair won their trust and within the 2 months they were there, Chan became a 
key person in the chapel and Sukumaran had such respect from the guards he was 
able to access paints and canvasses to do his final works.

The families were grateful for this, even if decisions from higher up made 
things difficult.

Mr McMahon questions why at so many turns, Indonesian authorities disregarded 
continuing legal process and asserted his clients' executions would go ahead 
regardless, 'deeply political manoeuvres clashing with the rule of law'.

Mr McMahon took from Nusakambangan the memory of the eight prisoners 
farewelling their families and friends before their deaths.

They were beautiful, warm people, he recalled, who in some cases merited 
serious punishment for their crimes but not death.

'To me it exposes the complete and absolute futility of state-sponsored killing 
of prisoners, it's a complete nonsense,' he said.

(source: Daily Mail)








MALAYSIA:

Aussie grandma Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto could face death penalty



An Australian grandmother accused of drug trafficking in Malaysia faces a 
possible death sentence after tests confirmed the substance found in her bag 
was crystal methamphetamine.

Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, 52, was arrested on December 7 last year at Kuala 
Lumpur airport allegedly carrying 1.1kg of the drug, also known as ice, court 
documents showed.

The Sydney woman was travelling to Australia.

She had flown in on a flight from Shanghai and was in transit before catching a 
connecting Malaysian Airlines flight to Melbourne.

She was arrested at the customs counter as she attempted to exit the airport.

Prosecutor Hasifulkhair Jamaluddin told the Malaysian Magistrate's court today 
tests conducted by a chemist confirmed the substance found in Exposto's bag was 
the drug.

Magistrate Noor Hafizah Salim then ordered the case to be transferred to the 
high court.

Malaysia has a mandatory death penalty by hanging for anyone found guilty of 
carrying more than 50g of a drug.

Authorities previously said Exposto was trafficking 1.5kg of methamphetamine.

Exposto, a mother of 4, appeared nervous when the amended charge was read to 
her.

Her defence team has yet to enter a plea, preferring to wait for the case to 
reach the high court because the lower magistrate's court has no jurisdiction 
to hear death penalty cases.

After the hearing, the 52-year-old was led out of the detention room in 
handcuffs, the Australian told reporters that she was innocent and nodded her 
head 3 times.

"Yes (I am innocent)," she said with a smile.

No date has been set for the high court hearing but defence lawyers said the 
trial could begin later this year.

"We are confident that we can show her innocence at the trial," Muhammad Shafee 
Abdullah, her counsel said.

Exposto's lawyers claim the grandmother was a mule who was duped into carrying 
a bag -- which she believed contained only clothing -- by a stranger who asked 
her to take it to Melbourne.

She had travelled to Shanghai after falling for an online romance scam by a 
person claiming to be a US serviceman, according to lawyers.

Customs officers discovered the drugs stitched into the compartment of a 
backpack.

2 Australians were hanged in 1986 for heroin trafficking -- the first 
Westerners to be executed in Malaysia.

Few people have been executed in Malaysia in recent years.

(source: news.com.au)








PAKISTAN:

The death penalty in Pakistan



The death penalty debate is currently raging in Pakistan. Although Pakistan had 
never abolished the death penalty, it had imposed a moratorium on executions 
back in 2008. The government, however, decided to resume state-sanctioned 
executions after the tragic Army Public School massacre at the end of last 
year. Since the time that the moratorium has been lifted, however, nearly a 
hundred people have been hanged. The moratorium on the death penalty was 
initially lifted only for those convicted of terrorism, but in March this year, 
it was extended to cover all capital offences. According to human rights 
groups, Pakistan has one of the world's largest death row populations, 
comprising over 8,500 inmates, who are now facing death by hanging. Out of 
these, only a fraction (approximately 10 %) are being tried as terrorists. 
Therefore, lifting the moratorium on the death penalty for all those convicted 
and given capital punishment has instigated heated controversy.

There is no overwhelming evidence for the effectiveness of the death penalty in 
preventing serious crimes. A study done by the UN in 2008 found that executions 
do not serve as a more effective deterrent to serious crimes than life 
imprisonment. However, executions still take place in several countries. 
Besides Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the US are other countries 
where the highest numbers of executions take place. Pakistan is, however, one 
of the handful of countries which since 1990 has executed prisoners under 18 
years of age at the time of committing a crime. Although it had subsequently 
increased the minimum age for executions to 18 years, the government seems 
adamant over hanging a convict who had committed a murder when he was still 
allegedly under 18 years of age this past month, before the president postponed 
the execution.

Now that the moratorium has been lifted, some of the names on the list of 
planned executions include Mumtaz Qadri, who killed the former Punjab governor, 
but also Aasia Bibi, the woman whose life the governor died trying to protect. 
The Supreme Court has recently stepped in to suspend death sentences issued to 
6 alleged militants by the military courts based on a petition challenging the 
fairness of their trials. The legality of the military courts has also been 
questioned and is currently under review by the Supreme Court.

Opinion about the need for military courts remains divided. Some argue that the 
conventional court system is overburdened and too slow, and there is a heavy 
reliance on witness testimony and very little protection for judges and 
prosecutors. This makes terror cases hard to prosecute since extremists easily 
intimidate witnesses and lawyers into dropping charges. We have indeed seen 
many high-profile suspected perpetrators of sectarian and terrorism-related 
violence walk free after the failure of the judiciary to convict them. 
Conversely, others argue that the military courts themselves do not provide 
fair trials, and their trial process is neither public nor transparent. 
Moreover, non-terrorism related offences have also been tried under the 
Anti-Terrorism Act in order to expedite trials.

The justification of resuming executions as a way to tackling the country's law 
and order challenges has also come under question. Supporters of the death 
penalty in Pakistan argue that it is the only effective way to deal with the 
scourge of militancy. Those opposed to the death penalty point out that those 
committed to dying for their cause will not be deterred by the threat of death. 
Moreover, they point out that the overall judicial system in the country is 
seriously flawed. The frequent use of torture to extract confessions and the 
lack of adequate investigative, including forensic capacity, are some of the 
reasons why many innocent people may have been wrongly sentenced to death. It 
seems that the government's decision to completely lift the moratorium on the 
death penalty, after stressing that only convicted terrorists would be hanged, 
has opened up a much bigger Pandora's Box.

(source: The Express Tribune)








INDIA:

Supreme Court confirms death penalty for 2 from UP



The Supreme Court Thursday confirmed the death penalty for a woman and her 
lover for killing 7 members of her family, including a 10-month-old child. 
Shabnam and Saleem, the two convicts, wanted to marry but Shabnam's family was 
against this alliance. The 2 drugged Shabnam's entire family and then hacked 
them to death on April 15, 2008, in Almora District of Uttar Pradesh. According 
to the prosecution, while Shabnam held the drugged, Saleem hacked them to death 
with an axe. The incident took place in Bawankhera village of Amroha. They were 
sentenced to death by the lower courts which was appealed against by the duo.

Advocate Dushyant Parashar, who was appointed as amicus curiae in the case, had 
sought commutation pointing out Shabnam had given birth to a child during her 
incarceration. Rejecting the plea, a bench led by Chief Justice of India H L 
Dattu said: "You (Shabnam) are also a mother. But you didn't show any mercy or 
affection to your family. Even you killed 10-month-old baby of your brother. We 
can't grant any relief."

(source: Indian Express)