Troy Davis's execution 'should not occur in the 21st century'

Myuran Sukumaran (left)
Andrew Chan (right)

The President of the Criminal Lawyers Association of Western Australia has called the execution of United States man, Troy Davis, "barbaric" and says all countries should move to abolish capital punishment altogether.

Mr Davis protested his innocence in his dying minutes before United States authorities administered the lethal injection at 11.08am, Georgia time.

The 42-year-old Georgia man was executed 20 years after he was convicted of the fatal shooting of a police officer and despite a plea for clemency from almost a million people worldwide.

Phil Urquhart, of the CLAWA, said Australia will soon be faced with the similar situation when two of the Bali Nine, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, face their upcoming executions in Indonesia.

The Sydney pair was among nine Australians caught trying to smuggle 8.3 kg of heroin through Bali, Indonesia which carries a death sentence for drug smuggling.

"There's only a handful of western democracies that still have capital punishment and most have demolished it a considerable time ago since it is a barbaric and totally inappropriate punishment," he said.

"To have someone executed for a crime no matter how serious it is should not occur and it is time to move into the 21st century and abolish capital punishment."

He said the problem was that a large number of those executed by capital punishment in the United States have since been found to be innocent due to the advancement in forensics.

"There's no victory for them if years afterwards they are exonerated, you can't bring back the dead," he said.

He said in those cases two families unfairly suffer; the victim's family and the family of the person wrongfully executed.

And in the case of the two young Sydney men and their families, they face a penalty that would never be carried out in Australia had they been arrested on the other side of the border, he said.

"Capital punishment is too serious for any type of offending, particularly when it's in relation to drugs," he said.

He said the problem faced by South East Asian countries was that their governments don't want to be seen offering clemency or leniency towards foreigners while at the same time executing their own people for the same offence.

"The death penalty is seen as a deterrent but the fact is it doesn't really serve as a deterrent because Australians and other foreigners are still being caught over there, in countries where the death penalty applies," he said.

"The Australian Government should be pushing for the abolition of capital punishment full stop, rather than arguing for clemency for its individual citizens facing the death penalty."

Sukumaran and Chan are currently in Kerobokan Prison awaiting the date of their execution unless granted clemency by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, Sept. 22, 2011

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