Australian Man to be Executed in Singapore

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In summary, an Australian man convicted of drugs charges in Singapore has lost his final appeal for clemency and will be executed, despite efforts from the Australian Foreign Minister. The man was caught smuggling heroin, an offense that carries the death penalty in Singapore. The conversation surrounding this case raises questions about the ethics of the death penalty and the responsibility of both the offender and the government in such cases.
  • #106
I guess watching Nguyen's mother on TV and listening to her begging for her son's life is having an emotional effect on me. Also, I'm a parent and I can just imagine how powerless and sad she must be feeling right now.

So whos been punished here? (retorical question) She is the victim of the crime, (IMO) that is this human rights volation. Someone here already posted this, can't remember who, but I think this execution highlights problems in our society that more deaths won't resolve... Our society needs to fight the source of problems proactively not remove problems one by one.. If you see what i mean.
 
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  • #107
Curious3141 said:
Yes, I do believe that innocent people occasionally get convicted of crimes. That happens in any country, in any system of law. What I don't get is why some people use this unavoidable fact to slam the death penalty specifically. Won't there also have been a miscarriage of justice in the case of a wrongful imposition of life in prison ? Let's say a 20 year old with his whole life ahead of him gets mistakenly convicted and thrown into prison for 50 years. Upon his 70th birthday, some new exonerating evidence comes up and he's released with an "apology". Do you really think he's going to get his life back ? Can that punishment be reversed ? What if he had died in prison (stabbed by a fellow inmate through no fault of his own) before the evidence had come to light ? I put it to you that the miscarriage of justice is only marginally (if at all) less in the instance of a wrongful nearly completed life sentence as opposed to a wrongful judicial death.
There are many but to to take just one real life example.

In Britain following a particularly nasty bombing campaign by the IRA in which many innocent people were killed the police were under huge pressure to make arrests.

They obliged and fabricated evidence against 6 Irishmen. Given public feeling at the time and the 'apparent' certainty of their guilt, if Britain had had the death penalty all 6 of these would have been strung up.

Fortunately there is no longer a death penalty in Britain because subsequent investigations championed by a member of the British parliament showed that the police had first tortured the men and when that didn't work simply fabricated 'confessions' from them whilst ignoring evidence that proved their innocence.

Eventually after 20 years their convictions were overturned and they were released. I am sure if asked they would tell you there is much more than a marginal difference between being wrongly hanged and wrongly incarcerated.
 
  • #108
SINGAPORE - An Australian man was executed by hanging Friday for drug trafficking, Singapore announced, hours after his lawyer said he had a "beautiful last visit" with his family.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051201/ap_on_re_as/singapore_execution

So that's that.
 
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