Indonesian authorities executed a Brazilian man in January without allowing a priest to give the last rites as he waited for the firing squad. Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira was executed on January 18, the last of five drug felons shot by firing squads on Nusakambangan, Indonesia’s execution island. The horrific last minutes of Moreira’s life were Read more
Pope Francis has called for the abolition of life imprisonment, saying that it is another, hidden, form of the death penalty. At a meeting with representatives of the International Association of Penal Law last week, the Pope denounced what he called “penal populism”. This promises to solve society’s problems by punishing crime instead of pursuing Read more
Bishop Paul Mea says his church will not support introducing the death penalty. He says there are other measures that can be taken to try to reduce violence in the community. The Kiribati parliament has passed the first reading of the bill and leaders are supposed to hold consultations with their electorate before the second Read more
Right to Life New Zealand is asking why there is the outcry from The New Zealand government about the Sudanese woman who has been condemned to death unless she recants her Christian faith. It is calling on the government to petition the Sudanese government to immediately release Mariam Ibrahim from imprisonment. Ibrahim, a Sudanese mother, Read more
Policy-makers in Papua New Guinea are drawing up a framework on how the death penalty might work there. The will soon submit the framework to Cabinet for discussion. The justice minister, Kerenga Kua, says members of government will debate the details of the policy once it is is written. He says the government will have the Read more
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, is in Papua New Guinea assessing the newly imposed death penalty. Death by lethal injection has been legislated as the preferred method for judicial killings in PNG. Previously, hanging was the only option for capital punishment but it’s now considered barbaric and Read more
The Archbishop of Mt Hagen in Papua New Guinea, Douglas Young, has expressed his deep concern at PNG’s Justice Minister’s determination to execute 13 men currently on death row. After many months of public condemnation of PNG’s revived and expanded death penalty laws, Archbishop Young says Church leaders are now looking at hosting a national and Read more
Papua New Guinea’s justice minister has told parliament he will enforce the nation’s death penalty laws. Kerenga Kua told the chamber last Thursday a government task force had visited Texas in the United States, Indonesia and Thailand to gauge the mechanics of how to implement it, the Post Courier reported. “A full report has been Read more
Vanuatu’s Minister of Justice says he is not in favour of introducing the death penalty, contradicting media reports saying he was. Silas Yatan has been reported as saying the government might bring in the death penalty following recent murders, including two woman. Continue reading
A second Melanesian country is considering the death penalty as a punishment for major crimes. Vanuatu’s Minister for Justice and Community Services, Silas Yatan, says the government may bring in the death penalty. This follows several recent killings, including the murder of two women. In May this year the Papua New Guinea Parliament adopted a Read more