Brintha & Raji Sukumaran
While Myuran Sukumaran faces the death penalty for drug trafficking in Indonesia, his sister Brintha and mother Raji struggle to cope. They still have hope that his fate is not yet sealed.

You can listen to this story at the Radio National site here.

GREG ROBERTS October 10, 2009 – 3:04PM

AAP

Anyone who thinks the death penalty does not affect Australians need only look next door to Bali, where three Australians are on death row, a rally has heard.

The death penalty should be outlawed around the world as slavery and child labour have been, the Melbourne rally heard on Saturday, the seventh World Day Against the Death Penalty.

An estimated 2,000 people heard barrister Julian Burnside, who is representing two convicted Australian drug traffickers in Bali, say capital punishment is "state sanctioned violence".

"Execution is premeditated, ritualised, state-sanctioned violence by brutalised societies," he told AAP.

"There is no crime no matter how terrible that could not be properly punished by decades in a cell."

Mr Burnside represents Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who, along with Queenslander Scott Rush, are on death row for their role in an attempt by the so-called Bali Nine to smuggle heroin in 2005.

"They are all preparing their final legal appeal documents called a `PK’, which is the final appeal in the Indonesian justice system," he said.

"If the PK is unsuccessful a person facing the death penalty has the right to appeal to the president for clemency.

"For this case we have one of Indonesia’s top lawyers, Mulya Lubis."

Jesuit priest and former prison chaplain Father Peter Norden said Australia had a responsibility to pressure other countries to abolish the death penalty.
"We do big business with those countries that still execute prisoners," he told AAP.

"We have a responsibility to raise awareness with those international students from those countries that can discuss it and think about it here in a way that they cannot do in their own country."

According to Amnesty International, more than two-thirds of the world’s countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

However, the 58 or so countries that retain it comprise more than 60 per cent of the world’s population, including the four most populous countries in the world: China (where 90 per cent of executions take place), India, the US and Indonesia.

The most infamous recent case in the US involved convicted killer and rapist Romell Broom, when executioners botched the lethal injection last month after spending more than two hours trying to find a vein.

About 6,000 state executions took place around the world in 2008.

© 2009 AAP

Australians Against Capital Punishment invite you to join commemorations of the World Day Against the Death Penalty.
Every year, opponents of the death penalty come together to add their voices to the growing international movement for a total abolition of capital punishment.
Justice Must Not Kill
And those who value justice, must not stay silent.

Vigil – 5pm Sunday October 11th at the Lizard, corner of Russell Street and Boundary Street, West End

Speakers include Lee & Christine Rush, whose son Scott faces execution in Indonesia
Stephen Keim, SC, patron of AACP
Maree Klemm, President of the Queensland & Northern NSW branch of Amnesty International

All friends and supporters are then invited to join us for dinner -
6pm at Huong’s restaurant at 83A Vulture Street, West End $25 per head.
– please RSVP by c.o.b. Thursday 8th October for catering purposes.

For more information, or to RSVP please email us on justine.hampson@gmail.com or 0423 709 445. Please specify any dietary requirements.

The ASU has launched a new petition on capital punishment, which can be signed online here, or downloaded here.

TO THE SPEAKER AND MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES and

THE PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE SENATE OF AUSTRALIA

This petition of the undersigned citizens of Australia draws the attention of the Parliament of Australia to the fact that there are currently no Federal Laws to prohibit the use of capital punishment against Australian citizens at home or abroad.

We request that the House of Representatives and the Senate legislate at the earliest opportunity to introduce and pass laws that prohibit the use of capital punishment against all Australian citizens. We also seek that this Government and all future Governments protect Australian citizens from the death penalty in other countries.

We further seek the expansion of the current repatriation program and move to have all Australian citizens serving a custodial sentence in a foreign country repatriated to Australia.

More about the ASU’s Human Right Committee can be found here.

Join musical acts Phil Monsour, Steve Towson, Wheatpaste and Brett Fahey as well as speakers including Lee & Christine Rush and Stephen Keim, SC at Australians Against Capital Punishment’s Rock Against the Death Penalty,

Browning Street Studios, 11 Browning St, West End

4pm til 8.30 Sunday August 23rd

For more information, contact Don on 0405 721 617 or don.sinnamon@gmail.com

By Will Ross
BBC News, Nairobi

More than 4,000 prisoners on death row in Kenya will have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment, President Mwai Kibaki has announced.

No death sentences have been carried out in Kenya for more than two decades.

Since then more than 4,000 people have been on death row in the country’s overcrowded, underfunded prisons.

Read more…

Australians Against Capital Punishment invite you to a concert to raise awareness of people facing the death penalty around the world.

Come along and hear Steve Towson, Phil Monsour, Protest! and Brett Fahey perform as well as speakers including Lee and Christine Rush, whose son Scott faces execution in Indonesia.

Sunday August 23rd 4pm- 8.30

Browning Street Studios,

11 Browning Street, West End

Entry $12 or $10 concession

For inquiries contact Tina on 0423 709 445 or email: justine.hampson@gmail.com

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Date: July 01 2009

Cynthia Banham

THE Federal Government has written to the states, telling them of its plans to introduce laws banning them from ever reintroducing the death penalty, whether they like it or not.

While all states have abolished the death penalty, there is nothing preventing a government from bringing it back.

The Age has a copy of a letter sent from Federal Attorney General Robert McClelland to his state counterparts on June 16, informing them “of the Commonwealth Government’s intention to introduce legislation to prohibit the application of the death penalty throughout Australia”.

The language of the letter is significant, as it indicates the Federal Government has opted to use the external affairs power in the constitution to put the prohibition in place.

This is instead of asking the states to refer their powers to the Commonwealth to enable it to pass the laws banning the reintroduction of the death penalty — an option that is seen as less watertight by the Federal Government because usually states only refer their powers for a limited period of time.

It is understood the Federal Government has legal advice that under the external affairs power and international treaties signed by Australia, including the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, it is able enact the laws and so intends to take this path.

Read more.

23 June 2009
Togo today decided to abolish the death penalty following a unanimous vote by the national assembly.

Togo has thereby become the 15th member of the African Union and the 94th country in the world to abolish the death penalty for all crimes.

“This country has chosen to establish a healthy justice system that limits judicial errors…and guarantees the inherent rights of the individual,” said Justice Minister Kokou Tozoun when the cabinet first adopted the abolition bill on 10 December 2008. “This (new) system is no longer compatible with a penal code that maintains the death penalty and grants the judiciary absolute power with irrevocable consequences.”

Togo stopped applying the death penalty more than three decades ago. The last executions of people sentenced to death date back to 1978 and the last death sentence was handed down in 2003.

Through today’s vote, Togolese members of parliament have reinforced the trend towards abolishing the death penalty in Africa.

Burundi adopted a new penal code in April 2009 which abolished the death penalty from the legislation. Several other countries, notably Mali, are reviewing their legislation and considering the possibility of removing any recourse to the death penalty.

Original story here.