Thought I would blog this simply from the point of view that we don’t want people in this situation to be forgotten about. 

In February 2006 the Bali Nine ( Nine Australians arrested in Bali for possesion of Herion), were handed down the expected stiff sentences under Balinese law.

Two of them, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were sentenced to death by firing squad.

Subsequently after losing appeals, Scott Rush, Mathew Norman, Si Yi Chen, and Tan Duc Thanh had death sentences imposed.

This left Martin Stephens, and Renae Lawrence with at least 20 year prison sentences, but the only two to escape the death penalty. 

As you can imagine, for Westerners the conditions of a Balinese Prison over time is essentially a death sentence anyway.

These people must be going through absolute hell.

Sure, OK they’re guilty as sin (and not particularly smart to try this), but it is only drug possesion, and not considered a SERIOUS crime by International law.

It is my humble opinion that a human being sentenced to death isn’t really equipped to deal with the massive amount of stress that a long drawn out death sentence would bring.

As someonce wrote, “It would be far more humane to carry out the death sentence immediatley after judgement”.  Of course this is not necessarily the most just approach…

Excerpt from Wikipedia:

Donald Rothwell, a Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney, has said that, unlike countries such as Singapore, it may not be long before the two [Referring to Chan, and Myuran] are executed.

The seven of the Bali Nine that had the death sentence imposed have now had around 20 months (almost two years) to think about their impending fate.

Isn’t there some sort of International Law about ”Cruel, and Unusual Punishment?”

Article 3 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights states:

 Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.