Jakarta Globe, AFP, Apr 30, 2015
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| Supporters of Australians on death row in Indonesia Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran light candles during a vigil at Martin Place in Sydney on April 28, 2015. The two were later executed by firing squad. (AFP Photo/Saeed Khan) |
Washington.
The United States, where the death penalty is still carried out, on Wednesday
steered clear of a storm of global protest triggered by Indonesia’s execution
of seven foreign drug traffickers.
The seven —
two from Australia, one from Brazil and four from Africa — were shot along with
one Indonesian, despite strident foreign appeals and pleas from family members.
“We don’t
have much to say on this, other than we’re aware that they have executed eight
[sic] foreign citizens convicted of drug trafficking,” State Department acting
spokeswoman Marie Harf said. “As we’ve said, none of these eight were
Americans.”
She spoke
as the US Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday about lethal injections,
after states began using alternative drugs — believed by some to cause pain and
suffering — to carry out the executions.
A total of
18 out of 50 US states and the US capital Washington have abolished the death
penalty, and the number of executions has fallen in recent years since the
capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.
Of the
1,407 executions performed in the US since 1976, 13 have taken place so far
this year.
Australia
has withdrawn its ambassador to Jakarta in protest at the execution of their
nationals, and the European Union has expressed dismay.
In
Massachusetts meanwhile, defense lawyers are trying to save Boston bomber
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from a federal death sentence after he was convicted of
carrying out the 2013 Boston bombings in which three people were killed.
US
attorneys have argued that the 21-year-old of Chechen descent deserves to die
for one of the bloodiest attacks on US soil since the 2001 9/11 attacks.
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