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Iran: Prisoner Hanged on Drug Charges

Iran: Prisoner Hanged on Drug Charges

Iran: Medieval and barbaric punishments A prisoner was hanged at Maragheh Prison on drug related charges. Four other prisoners at this priso...

3:12 AM

6 drug traffickers sentenced to death in West Java, Indonesia

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzBKKUlfjBUJYvQ-wbFaSP37531ZEC96JDeZfBQGEBusO1kikjYIhVClxn6axj9_Hb_YLyxW0CKBQHjdGmQKKXSSK4X7tlkrA4clrAgxZnalVA8a8AVmhMFBKJC_zPyFDh2xdC30SDG80/s1600/Meth+bust+Indonesia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Meth bust by Indonesia's BNN" border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzBKKUlfjBUJYvQ-wbFaSP37531ZEC96JDeZfBQGEBusO1kikjYIhVClxn6axj9_Hb_YLyxW0CKBQHjdGmQKKXSSK4X7tlkrA4clrAgxZnalVA8a8AVmhMFBKJC_zPyFDh2xdC30SDG80/s400/Meth+bust+Indonesia.jpg" title="Meth bust by Indonesia's BNN" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Cirebon District Court in West Java handed the death penalty on Wednesday to 6 of 9 defendants for dealing 40 kilograms of crystal methamphetamines and 180,000 ecstasy pills in March last year in a case that involved an international drug ring.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Presiding judge Mukhlis said the six defendants were proven guilty of smuggling drugs into the country for distribution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The defendants have violated Article 114( 2), Article 113(2), Article 112(2) and Article 132(1) of Law No. 35/2009 on narcotics," said Muklis, when reading out the verdict as quoted by Antara.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The death sentence was what the prosecutors demanded.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 6 defendants were Ricky Gunawan, 34, Jusman, 52, Karun, aka Ahong, 40, Yanto, aka Abeng, 50, Sugianto, aka Acay, 29 and M. Rizki, 30. 2 other defendants, Hendri Unan, 28 and Gunawan Aminah, 60, avoided capital punishment but were both sentenced to 8 years in prison and fined Rp 1 billion (US$75,414).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In March last year, National Police detectives arrested 9 drug traffickers at a rest area by the Cikampek toll road.</div><br />Source: The Jakarta Post, January 12, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

6 drug traffickers sentenced to death in West Java, Indonesia

The Cirebon District Court in West Java handed the death penalty on Wednesday to 6 of 9 defendants for dealing 40 kilograms of crystal metha...

2:44 AM

Mother of man set to hang in Singapore urges PM to intercede

Mother of man set to hang in Singapore urges PM to intercede

Prabagaran Srivijayan A woman today pleaded with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to intercede on behalf of her son, Prabagaran Srivija...

7:21 AM

Iran: A Prisoner Executed Before His Trial Ends

Iran: A Prisoner Executed Before His Trial Ends

Medieval and barbaric punishments NCRI - A death row prisoner was executed in Qazvin last week while his family says his case was still unde...

4:02 AM

Mixed Messages on the Death Penalty in Indonesia's Drug War

Mixed Messages on the Death Penalty in Indonesia's Drug War

Philippine President R. Duterte (left) and Indonesian President J. Widodo Indonesian authorities are sending mixed messages on the death pen...

5:55 AM

Bali Nine Member Myuran Sukumaran's Gut-Wrenching Exhibition Opens

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoYQrHuLIq3jzAbsb3mUXv8QRd74rpyOdwSrpJI96gtLxJ_xjWmH8yAlFAKQOEzkQLFXE4kt9H0CdgWMFWCXvzXf7BNnmKwoelrpIEHD5r5-8TNHWklLB7rv1KHSHjQKCsX5CaZ9B72QA/s1600/Another+Day+in+Paradise+Myuran+Sukumaran+Exhivition+JAN_2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="'Another Day in Paradise' - Myuran Sukumaran's exhibition opens in Sydney" border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoYQrHuLIq3jzAbsb3mUXv8QRd74rpyOdwSrpJI96gtLxJ_xjWmH8yAlFAKQOEzkQLFXE4kt9H0CdgWMFWCXvzXf7BNnmKwoelrpIEHD5r5-8TNHWklLB7rv1KHSHjQKCsX5CaZ9B72QA/s400/Another+Day+in+Paradise+Myuran+Sukumaran+Exhivition+JAN_2017.jpg" title="'Another Day in Paradise' - Myuran Sukumaran's exhibition opens in Sydney" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Another Day in Paradise' - Myuran Sukumaran's exhibition opens in Sydney</td></tr></tbody></table>The title for the first major exhibition of art works by Myuran Sukumaran, <b><a href="http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2017/myuran" target="_blank">Another Day in Paradise</a></b>, came directly from the executed drug smuggler himself.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those words appeared in a subject line of an email sent to artist and Sukumaran’s mentor Ben Quilty, following a particularly violent riot at Bali’s Kerobokan Prison.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For the last four years of Sukumaran’s life, he ran an art studio within the prison and taught lessons to his fellow inmates. Sukumaran had access to the prison’s medical facility so that he could test participants for drugs (if there were drugs found within the art studio it would be shut down), which meant that when the riot broke out it was he who had to help.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“There was a machete wound to a man’s leg,” Quilty says. “He sent me these very grainy iPhone photos of him sewing up a man’s leg, and there was just blood everywhere, and the email subject line was ‘another day in paradise’.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, almost two years after Sukumaran’s death, Quilty is opening the exhibition, featuring more than 100 of Sukumaran’s works completed in prison, alongside pieces commissioned from other artists (Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Megan Cope, Jagarth Dheerasekara, Taloi Havini, Khaled Sabsabi and Matthew Sleeth).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Quilty co-curated the exhibition with Michael Dagostino, the director of Campbelltown Arts Centre, where the show opens this weekend as part of Sydney Festival. Dagostino says he was compelled to host the exhibition in Campbelltown given that Sukumaran grew up in western Sydney, where his family still lives.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“<a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/racism-death-penalty-and-myuran.html" target="_blank">Myuran’s story is a western Sydney story, one of redemption through immense adversity</a>,” he says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it’s still a rather gutsy move on the part of both Sydney Festival and Campbelltown Arts Centre to exhibit the works of such a controversial figure.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although there was plenty of support in Australia for Sukumaran and his fellow executed Bali Nine member Andrew Chan (who features in the exhibition), the community was clearly divided. A poll held three months before Sukumaran’s execution asking “if an Australian is convicted of drug trafficking in another country and sentenced to death, should the penalty be carried out?” received a 52% affirmative response from Australians.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“There are still a lot of haters in the community,” Quilty says. “And I invite them all with very open arms to come along to this exhibition, and I challenge them to walk away from this exhibition filled with the same hatred towards my mate as they had in the lead-up to his execution.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sukumaran became a prolific painter in his final years within the prison, and the exhibition features plenty of never-before-seen works, and a wall of paintings made during his last 72 hours of life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the works from those final hours sits on the floor, against the wall. Dagostino says that it symbolises Sukumaran’s unfinished business.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdUPkfQ0EFbjBhGlArzDrZALWiK9QfLHMY-PRyvvm2BZxWxEVWNQo5ja2QaHxDDihS470c5iSLpo_L9q0QeBYuSMERZO54Y9dG3jieVcaDnTXdsjytPn7k7cjCJp8dq8VcG6gp_DN6-4/s1600/Myuran+Sukumaran%2527s+final+painting+Indonesian+Flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Indonesian flag, by Myuran Sukumaran" border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdUPkfQ0EFbjBhGlArzDrZALWiK9QfLHMY-PRyvvm2BZxWxEVWNQo5ja2QaHxDDihS470c5iSLpo_L9q0QeBYuSMERZO54Y9dG3jieVcaDnTXdsjytPn7k7cjCJp8dq8VcG6gp_DN6-4/s400/Myuran+Sukumaran%2527s+final+painting+Indonesian+Flag.jpg" title="The Indonesian flag, by Myuran Sukumaran" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Indonesian flag, by Myuran Sukumaran</td></tr></tbody></table>While the exhibition features less than half of Sukumaran’s total output, it includes key works known to the public, including his final painting: an Indonesian flag realised with thick red paint, seeming to bleed. The back of the canvas was signed by all nine prisoners facing execution that day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Quilty believes that Sukumaran was only just starting to find his own “unique visual language” when he was executed, but that the exhibition demonstrates something quite profound.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I hope that this show goes a long way to showing not only the healing quality of what an art practice can do, but how much a visual language can change and alter the world, and make people think in a different way,” he says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When Quilty first came into contact with Sukumaran, he gave him a pile of art books to help him refine his painting skills. He says he’s never seen somebody develop their craft at such speed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Myuran was the first person to read those art books from beginning to end. I only looked at the pictures. He read every single word in every art book that I gave him,” Quilty says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He also advised Sukumaran to turn the mirror on himself, because he was the most interesting subject that he had. One large wall in the exhibition features 36 self portraits, all grappling with different ways of looking at oneself.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But his subjects also include his fellow inmates, all of the Bali Nine, his close friends and family members, and even the Australian and Indonesian politicians involved in the diplomatic negotiations concerning his case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What seems clear is that the exhibition will have a great emotional impact on many who visit, no matter where they stand on the death penalty and the Bali Nine case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Quilty says this is a brave and courageous starting point for Sukumaran’s artistic legacy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“If Myuran only knew that this show was here, with these six extraordinary artists responding … I promised him that this would happen, but to know that it’s happened on this scale …”<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2017/myuran" target="_blank">Another Day in Paradise</a></b><i> is at Campbelltown Arts Centre from January 13 to March 26. Entry is free.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="https://dailyreview.com.au/executed-bali-nine-member-myuran-sukumarans-gut-wrenching-debut-exhibition-opens/54586/" target="_blank">Daily Review</a>, Ben Neutze, January 11, 2017. Ben Neutze is Deputy Editor of Daily Review. He has previously written for Time Out Sydney, The Guardian Australia and Limelight Magazine.<br /><br /><br /><b>➤ Recommended reading:</b> <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/racism-death-penalty-and-myuran.html" target="_blank">Racism, the death penalty and Myuran Sukumaran</a>, Ben Quilty, December 24, 2016</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

Bali Nine Member Myuran Sukumaran's Gut-Wrenching Exhibition Opens

'Another Day in Paradise' - Myuran Sukumaran's exhibition opens in Sydney The title for the first major exhibition of art works ...

5:31 AM

Putrajaya urged to save Malaysian on Singapore death row

Putrajaya urged to save Malaysian on Singapore death row

Prabagaran Srivijayan The argument put forward by activist groups in Singapore, led by lawyer M Ravi, is that core elements involving preven...

8:59 AM

Racism, the death penalty and Myuran Sukumaran

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9TmpnfhTDGmO72WvIGIpMddgcZp0TzYaHJdMSKYdTfrYsRUnnvv6gLR0kZD0hoIl4Y96kb5oMEMatSH9cQVj8bkNGPXBJg7E5SrXeg7CKe4tdDZEKZyeWAPTLXudMbi3PlAvR_iKBXU/s1600/Australian+artist+Ben+Quilty+teaches+Sukumaran+to+paint+in+Kerobokan+Prison-+Photo+by+Jason+Childs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's painting workshop" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9TmpnfhTDGmO72WvIGIpMddgcZp0TzYaHJdMSKYdTfrYsRUnnvv6gLR0kZD0hoIl4Y96kb5oMEMatSH9cQVj8bkNGPXBJg7E5SrXeg7CKe4tdDZEKZyeWAPTLXudMbi3PlAvR_iKBXU/s400/Australian+artist+Ben+Quilty+teaches+Sukumaran+to+paint+in+Kerobokan+Prison-+Photo+by+Jason+Childs.jpg" title="Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's painting workshop" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's painting workshop</td></tr></tbody></table>How many times will I have to watch as a privileged, white politician pronounces, “We are not a racist country”?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I’m keenly aware that we are a remarkably tolerant and multicultural society. But we have a deep scar of racism that runs thick through our suburbs. And we all know it. Ask an Indigenous person how their day goes. Think of their ancestors being driven off their own land. Think of the hundreds of recorded Indigenous massacre sites across this country, how only a shameful handful are publicly acknowledged.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Raji Sukumaran abandoned her own troubled homeland when her eldest son was a year old. She fled war with her ill husband, from Sri Lanka to London, following a trail of Sri Lankans, all seeking a safer future. London in the ’80s was brutal for the Sukumaran family and within two years Raji was planning to resettle again in Australia. In the last year of her eldest son’s life, I asked him if he’d faced racism as a kid at school in the western suburbs of Sydney. He laughed. Not one day had passed where Myuran Sukumaran did not face racial abuse and physical violence. That realisation was the closest I came to getting a clear insight into the path that led that little boy to his profoundly selfish crime and the final, breathtaking punishment. Never did Myu allow me to talk publicly about his childhood and the barrage of racial abuse that he had become accustomed to as a little boy. Like so many of my friends who’ve faced similar racism as children, they wear it in silence. It’s a part of their history they reconciled themselves to about a decade before they were old enough to vote. As a child, some primordial urge to be happy must allow little people to walk on, head down, through the assault. But the possibility of broken parts of a psyche after such a brutal childhood are, personally, impossible for me to reconcile. And now that my dear friend Myu is dead – executed by the Indonesian state, along with Andrew Chan and six others – it is important for me to air that. He quietly impressed upon me that the decisions he made were his own. He owned them and wanted no excuses offered for his making them. When I began to tweet #boycottbali he phoned me, irritated and anxious, and again asked for me to back off. It was not the Balinese who had made his mistakes. He made his mistakes, he told me. Simple. He blamed no one else for his crimes. Against unimaginable odds, Myu had become a good man.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When faced with the online cruelty of herds of faceless Australian trolls writing about Myu’s fate it was impossible for me not to assume that there was a racial bent to their hatred. At first they seemed so grossly misdirected, until I took into account that thick, ever-present scab of racism. Myu was a brilliantly reformed prisoner. He was honest and loyal, intellectually rigorous, humble and calm. The guards new it; his lawyers knew it; everyone who met Myu knew it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many questioned why I stood up for him. I was one of many, although through necessity I became one of the public faces of a community who had relentlessly fought for Myu and Andrew for almost 10 years, including lawyers, teachers, artists, philosophers, journalists and politicians. Why would we stand up for men who had broken the law in another country?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlxCXXP0azXIUceSDXFfW2g3ePe7MY1sUUvt2E1zIY3YsPxHGTxZ1752UffHPjRNW76vCp7TzoJoxTFWhrHtMer3VrgVXu95g7xdLxHtRdajIyTWhw3Tmpc-vjvzVp7_3B76QTw1nW3NQ/s1600/Bali+Nine+death+row+inmate+Myuran+Sukumaran+with+his+Archibald+Prize+entry%252C+a+self-portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Myuran Sukumaran stands in front of his prize-winning self-portrait." border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlxCXXP0azXIUceSDXFfW2g3ePe7MY1sUUvt2E1zIY3YsPxHGTxZ1752UffHPjRNW76vCp7TzoJoxTFWhrHtMer3VrgVXu95g7xdLxHtRdajIyTWhw3Tmpc-vjvzVp7_3B76QTw1nW3NQ/s400/Bali+Nine+death+row+inmate+Myuran+Sukumaran+with+his+Archibald+Prize+entry%252C+a+self-portrait.jpg" title="Myuran Sukumaran stands in front of his prize-winning self-portrait." width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myuran Sukumaran stands in front of his prize-winning self-portrait.</td></tr></tbody></table>I am part of a community who is quite ready to stand up for our beliefs. We are ready to calmly call on other countries to seek compassion, strive for forgiveness and fight for human rights. We should call out bullying and racism in our schools and we should also use our most diplomatic voices to call out injustices in every community, on every continent. My beliefs lie in atheism. The beliefs that bound us in our fight for Myu and Andrew are not solely Christian values. They are fundamental to Buddhist and Islamic beliefs, Hindu, Sikh and Judaist. We weren’t declaring war on Indonesia for our beliefs, but we were standing up, using our voices, clearly and calmly – and if that “affects our relationship” with Indonesia, then so be it. As the world, from my studio, appears to be sliding sideways right now, loud clear voices are a fundamental part of the way out of this bloody mess. Voices are never violent and never threatening if those voices are calling for compassion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On January 13, 2017, Myu’s exhibition <b><a href="http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2017/myuran" target="_blank">Another Day in Paradise</a></b> opens at the Campbelltown Arts Centre in Sydney. The arts centre is a short drive from Myu’s primary school and from the high school he attended with Andrew Chan. In prison, Myu was by far the most dedicated student I’ve taught. He was reformed before I met him. Like many of my old mates, Myu was trying to find his place in the world, only he was searching for his calling from inside Kerobokan prison, Denpasar. <br /><br />Next year it will be 50 years since Australia has committed execution. Ronald Ryan was hanged in Pentridge prison on February 3, 1967. Back then opponents of the abolition screamed that without the vicious deterrent of gallows our society would slide backwards into violent anarchy. In 2016, Iran, America, China, Indonesia and North Korea all carried out executions. I’d suggest that we, 50 years later, are more peaceful than all of them. 2017 is a year for all Australians to stand up against brutality, against violence, against racism and against the death penalty. It is for the most compassionate Australians to sway popular opinion in our region. It is an obligation and it is a responsibility. Internationally, in 2017, we will have the moral high ground, the soapbox, and it should be used. Execution is not a deterrent to young wayward men. No punishment is. But reform is real. Myuran Sukumaran proved it. The exhibition of his brilliant paintings is testament to Myu’s world and to the power of a voice that he worked so hard to create.</div><br /><b><a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2016/12/24/racism-the-death-penalty-and-myuran-sukumaran/14824980004137" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: The Saturday Paper, Ben Quilty, December 24, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">➤ <b>Related article:</b> <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/mother-of-bali-nine-member-myuran.html" target="_blank">Mother of Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran wants people to remember him through art</a>, January 6, 2017</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Racism, the death penalty and Myuran Sukumaran

Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's painting workshop How many times will I have to watch as a privileged, white polit...

2:39 AM

Singapore, Malaysia lawyers race against clock to save Malaysian from hangman

Singapore, Malaysia lawyers race against clock to save Malaysian from hangman

Singaporean M Ravi, founder of the Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign S Prabagaran is to be executed in Singapore before the end of the m...

4:35 AM

Iran: 2 executed for 'waging war against God', 2 over drug charges

Iran: 2 executed for 'waging war against God', 2 over drug charges

Iran: Barbaric and medieval punishments 3 Prisoners Executed - 2 for Moharebeh 1 for Drug Charges 3 prisoners were reportedly executed at Ra...

3:32 AM

Iran: Seven executed on drug charges

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxEVg69q-aWn1PE-sO_R0oi67QIQA-UdHsoipk4rO5N1UlMciq9SMLAXqT8ZdJDiEarGtej83NDhvCuRSoPKWyfSSjRVJc_a5NJHQwmIK-LBd_xOr_MTJUgzdKOoLfunQFlmFq5JxZeBU/s1600/Iran+Death+Penalty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxEVg69q-aWn1PE-sO_R0oi67QIQA-UdHsoipk4rO5N1UlMciq9SMLAXqT8ZdJDiEarGtej83NDhvCuRSoPKWyfSSjRVJc_a5NJHQwmIK-LBd_xOr_MTJUgzdKOoLfunQFlmFq5JxZeBU/s400/Iran+Death+Penalty.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Seven prisoners were executed on drug related charges in northern Iran.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iran Human Rights (JAN 4 2017): Four prisoners were reportedly executed at Karaj Central Prison (northern Iran) and three prisoners were reportedly executed at Karaj's Ghezel Hesar Prison (northern Iran). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />All seven prisoners were sentenced to death on drug related charges.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to close sources, on Wednesday January 4, the execution sentences of three prisoners were carried out at Ghezel Hesar Prison for drug related offenses. The prisoners are Khashiar Behrouzi, Mehdi Kavousi, and Anoush Baluch. These three prisoners and another prisoner identified as Harif Gholami were transferred to solitary confinement on Monday in preparation of their executions. According to reports, Mr. Gholami was transferred to Ghezel Hesar Prison from Tehran's central prison for execution; however, prior to his transfer, Mr. Gholami reportedly killed another prisoner. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As a result of the murder he committed, his death sentence for the drug related charges was stopped pending investigation into the murder charges. Mr. Gholami is currently being held in solitary confinement in Ghezel Hesar Prison. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are numerous cases of death row prisoners in Iran committing acts of murder in order to delay or quash their execution sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Tuesday January 3, four prisoners were reportedly executed at Karaj Central Prison on drug related charges. Close sources report the names of the prisoners as: Hadi Moghaddam, Ali Nouri, Alireza Haj Firouzabadi, Ali Nouri.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iranian official sources, including the Judiciary and the media, have been silent about these seven executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iranian authorities continue to implement death sentences for drug related offenses at a high rate even when an urgent plan was approved in the Iranian Parliament last week calling for a halt to the execution of prisoners on death row for drug related offenses. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Additionally, Iranian Parliament members recently sent a joint letter to the head of Iran's Judiciary asking for the imminent execution of approximately five thousand drug-related prisoners to be stopped pending further review of their cases.</div><br />Source: <a href="https://iranhr.net/en/articles/2749/" target="_blank">Iran Human Rights</a>, January 4, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Iran: Seven executed on drug charges

Seven prisoners were executed on drug related charges in northern Iran. Iran Human Rights (JAN 4 2017): Four prisoners were reportedly execu...

2:32 AM

Problems Remain in China’s Death-Penalty System Even After Reforms

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipBLE0Ug4Rfnnz6Yqs197-3pi8iISWLeqJuAH5jDdKjETU-j2vNl7wWe1lMmgTVy4XMgi1ae5Ut_-g8RBdsCZfLVSf6ag5yU5m5jy8K_20bArHZiQbTwK1CVRbJoXcYHOG5uVgMkC9crA/s1600/executing+drug+trafickers+in+China.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Chinese death-row inmates" border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipBLE0Ug4Rfnnz6Yqs197-3pi8iISWLeqJuAH5jDdKjETU-j2vNl7wWe1lMmgTVy4XMgi1ae5Ut_-g8RBdsCZfLVSf6ag5yU5m5jy8K_20bArHZiQbTwK1CVRbJoXcYHOG5uVgMkC9crA/s400/executing+drug+trafickers+in+China.jpg" title="Chinese death-row inmates" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chinese death-row inmates are marched to a nearby execution ground<br />where they will be put to death by firing squad.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">(Beijing) — Lai Changxing, the kingpin of a multibillion-dollar smuggling ring in the coastal city of Xiamen and once dubbed “China’s most-wanted fugitive” by state media, was given only a life sentence by a Chinese court in 2012, although more than a dozen of his accomplices had been executed by firing squad a decade earlier.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lai's network smuggled products as diverse as cigarettes, cars, oil and textiles. But the 58-year-old was able to literally dodge a bullet after Chinese authorities agreed to drop the death sentence in his case after a 12-year-long extradition battle with Canada.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Critics say Lai’s sentencing highlights the uneven implementation of the death penalty, which is used by government-controlled courts as a means to deter crime — often at the expense of justice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Amid mounting international pressure and rising public discontent at home over its widespread use of the death penalty, China’s top court has taken a series of steps to reform the system of capital punishment in the past decade.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chinese academics estimate the number of death sentences handed down has dropped sharply since 2007, after the Supreme People’s Court took over the system of reviewing these verdicts that was earlier left in the hands of provincial-level courts. Yet legal reformists say more changes are needed to avoid possible wrongful convictions. They point out that the review happens behind closed doors, often without the presence of defense lawyers, and so are calling for open court-style hearings instead of allowing a small group of Supreme People’s Court judges to have the final say.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The defense lawyer’s voice must be heard during these reviews because they can make or break a life,” said Zhang Qingsong, a founding partner at Beijing’s Shangquan Law Office.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Under the current system, a person who is sentenced to death by a local court can appeal the verdict to a high court at the provincial or regional level. A death sentence upheld by a high court is then referred to the Supreme People’s Court for review.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This review process works as follows: A judge from a lower court wanting to give out a death sentence must first file an application with a three-judge panel at the Supreme People’s Court, and the panel then produces a review report either approving the verdict or disapproving it. This is then referred to a deputy president of the Supreme People’s Court for approval. Next it is submitted to an internal trial committee for the final decision, explained a Supreme People’s Court official who asked not to be named.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The public does not have access to information about the workings of this internal trial committee, which is composed of an unknown number of Supreme Court judges.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Once a death sentence is upheld, the president of the Supreme Court will issue an execution order that has to be carried out by a lower court within seven days.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But despite its lack of transparency, the current review process is a far cry from the system that existed before 2007.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">'Strike Hard'</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress, had decentralized the review system in the 1980s, allowing provincial and regional high courts to have a final say on cases involving capital punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The move was part of the “strike hard” anti-crime campaign launched nationwide amid a noticeable uptick in serious felonies such as murder, rape, armed robberies and arson attacks in the earlier years of the country’s reform and opening-up.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During this period, judges — many of them former police officers or demobilized soldiers without legal training — were ordered by the Communist Party to be severe. They were often told to expedite trials or to give harsh punishments, well above those prescribed in the penal code, for the sake of “maintaining social order.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The decision to decentralize reviews had eroded the credibility of the review system and the public no longer trusted it as the last resort to address potential miscarriages of justice, according to legal experts, including Li Hongjiang, a Supreme Court judge.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During this period, “the review system was made meaningless and toothless because a provincial or regional high court is unlikely to change a death sentence it had already upheld in a subsequent review,” Li wrote in 2007, in an article published by the People’s Judicature, a journal affiliated to the Supreme Court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The string of death sentences overturned and pronounced as wrongful convictions in recent years were all reviewed and given the green light by provincial or regional courts in the 1980s and ’90s.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmXXPzXUGrbie2ljiPK4S3QD1liVYSwNhewhrmHe750Z43rTSvVTURHdFbaOrJa4RlYmyTQxwyadTdLWPDVaCb_VLPSPP-uTZkIMDCs-4nSeiy4cGFY2BQvcQ3dHrOyOItu15e_WtBtgU/s1600/Nie+Shubin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Nie Shubin" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmXXPzXUGrbie2ljiPK4S3QD1liVYSwNhewhrmHe750Z43rTSvVTURHdFbaOrJa4RlYmyTQxwyadTdLWPDVaCb_VLPSPP-uTZkIMDCs-4nSeiy4cGFY2BQvcQ3dHrOyOItu15e_WtBtgU/s400/Nie+Shubin.jpg" title="Nie Shubin" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exonerated Nie Shubin, "hastily executed" during the "strike hard" campaign</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">The latest example is <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/search/label/Nie%20Shubin" target="_blank">the exoneration of Nie Shubin</a>, 21, from Hebei province, who was executed after being convicted of the rape and murder of a young woman in 1995.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nie was arrested, given a death sentence and hastily executed, largely based on evidence extracted via a forced confession when the “strike hard” campaign was in full force, court documents show.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But after an alleged serial rapist, arrested over a similar crime in the central province of Henan a decade later, confessed to killing the victim in Nie’s case, the previous verdict was put into doubt.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It took Nie’s family another 10 years to petition various judicial authorities and courts before a retrial was granted by the Supreme Court in June, and Nie’s name was cleared in early December 2016.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Hebei Provincial People’s High Court, which upheld Nie’s death sentence during an appeal on April 25, 1995, was also in charge of the final review on the verdict. It gave the go-ahead to the execution in a review completed just two days after the appeal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The number on death row in China is a closely guarded state secret. But the number of death sentences given out has dropped sharply after the Supreme Court took charge of all reviews in 2007, down from tens of thousands to several thousand, according to estimates by Chinese academics.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The number of executions each year has also declined from five-digit figures to a several thousand as a result.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Chinese government had previously argued that the number on death row was small given China’s large population. But fewer than 40 people are sentenced to death every year in India, a country with a comparable population, according to Zhao Bingzhi, president of the College for Criminal Law Science at Beijing Normal University.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2016, 30 people were sentenced to death in the United States as of November, one-tenth of the 315 capital punishment verdicts in 1996, according to Washington-based rights group Death Penalty Information Center. There were only 20 executions in the U.S. in 2016.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">China's widespread use of capital punishment remains a stumbling block when the country negotiates bilateral extradition treaties with many Western nations such as the U.S and Canada, where most Chinese fugitives are in hiding. This has hampered the anti-corruption campaign launched by President Xi Jinping in 2012.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Only a handful of developed nations, including Spain and France, are among the approximately 40 countries that have signed extradition treaties with China, government data showed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">Going Easy on the Noose</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the decision to centralize the review process in 2007 by making the Supreme Court in Beijing the sole body to green light death sentences, the court also removed 22 crimes from the list of 68 capital offenses, including many white-collar financial crimes, in 2011 and 2014.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a document the court released in August 2007, lower courts were also told to “exercise caution” when giving death sentences to people who have killed a spouse over a marital dispute or in confrontations with neighbors, if they have shown remorse and adequately compensated the other party.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This stealthy reform process has cut down the number of death sentences by half and even two-thirds in some regions, according to professor Chen Guangzhong at China University for Political Science and Law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivDOwEFCDym47e6kBZW1IF5_W27LjCSXEG57Nm23SZCEvxh3HYnYboBP2WIe0w9Cyeh7gtd3jbI2JABoxyrbshVuydim-ao2Z1_0ujSuireItiLvDokpSct4h1OwbEYXwqkcr0oRaiUDES/s1600/chine_ex%25C3%25A9cution.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Execution in China" border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivDOwEFCDym47e6kBZW1IF5_W27LjCSXEG57Nm23SZCEvxh3HYnYboBP2WIe0w9Cyeh7gtd3jbI2JABoxyrbshVuydim-ao2Z1_0ujSuireItiLvDokpSct4h1OwbEYXwqkcr0oRaiUDES/s400/chine_ex%25C3%25A9cution.jpg" title="Execution in China" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Liver transplants in China  primarily relied on organs harvested<br />from executed inmates." Execution by firing squad in China.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">“We are now more cautious when imposing the death sentences as the Supreme Court has significantly tightened the review process,” said a president of an intermediate court in a western region who asked not to be named.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Why should we bother if our applications for a death penalty won’t pass the reviews by the top court?”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over 95% of the death sentences imposed since 2007 have been limited to those who committed serious crimes such as murder, drug trafficking and robberies that result in deaths, according to Zhao from Beijing Normal University, who also serves a director of criminal law research unit under the government-backed China Law Society.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">China has also gradually changed the method of execution in most cases from firing squad to lethal injection. In 2015, the country dropped the controversial practice of harvesting organs from executed criminals for use in transplant operations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But given the lack of official data on people on death row, the number of livers harvested served as an indicator of the number of executions in the country for several years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The number of liver transplants, which primarily relied on organs harvested from executed inmates, dropped by one-third from 2006 to 1,822 in 2007 when the Supreme Court began to take charge of death sentence reviews, according to the China Liver Transplant Registry, an online liver transplant database backed by the Health Commission.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite the progress made over the last decade, the death penalty review system is still plagued by a lack of transparency, according to critics.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A search of China Judgment Online, a database affiliated with the Supreme Court, by Zhang Peng, a postgraduate student at the China University of Political Science and Law, found 320 cases between Jan.1, 2014, to Aug. 31, 2016, where review documents showed the Supreme Court had upheld the death penalty. But only 28 of the documents, or less than 9% of cases, said that a defense lawyer was involved in the final review.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some academics said that it might be impossible to add another layer of court trials to replace the review system, but the Supreme Court can turn these reviews into open hearings, which allows for greater public scrutiny.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.caixinglobal.com/2017-01-03/101032821.html" target="_blank">Caixin</a>, Shan Yuxiao, Wang Yiyin and Li Rongde, January 3, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Problems Remain in China’s Death-Penalty System Even After Reforms

Chinese death-row inmates are marched to a nearby execution ground where they will be put to death by firing squad. (Beijing) — Lai Changxin...

9:45 AM

5 Fast Facts | USA News