The Execution of Nguyen Tuong Van.
This is a story I came across today courtesy of TalkLeft. Somehow I have not heard anything about this before. But what a tragic story; I think even those in the U.S. who are in favor of capital punishment would be saddened by this.
The backstory:
Nguyen, who has no previous criminal record, was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and moved to Australia when he was 6 years old. Apparently he agreed to carry a packet of heroin into Singapore to pay off some debts owed by his twin brother. He was stopped at Changi airport. In Singapore, anyone caught with 15 grams or more of heroin faces a mandatory death sentence. Nguyen was apparently caught with approximately 396 grams. As such, he was sentenced to death. He is scheduled to be executed at 5pmET (6am in Singapore) tomorrow, December 2.
The Singapore government has defended the sentence as necessary to further Singapore's "firm position against drug trafficking." The Australian government, meanwhile, has called the sentence barbaric.
There's more information about the efforts to stop this execution at stophanging.com and Amnesty International-Australia's site, including the Amnesty International sponsored "Reach Out" campaign.
***UPDATE 12/2***
Nguyen Tuong Van was executed this morning.
***UPDATE 12/2***
***UPDATE 12/3***
Although it received at least slightly more media attention here in the U.S. than the execution of Nguyen Tuong Van, it probably bears mentioning that Kenneth Lee Boyd was executed in North Carolina yesterday, becoming the 1,000th person executed in the United States since SCOTUS ruled that capital punishment could resume in the United States in 1976.
***UPDATE 12/3***
The backstory:
Nguyen, who has no previous criminal record, was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and moved to Australia when he was 6 years old. Apparently he agreed to carry a packet of heroin into Singapore to pay off some debts owed by his twin brother. He was stopped at Changi airport. In Singapore, anyone caught with 15 grams or more of heroin faces a mandatory death sentence. Nguyen was apparently caught with approximately 396 grams. As such, he was sentenced to death. He is scheduled to be executed at 5pmET (6am in Singapore) tomorrow, December 2.
The Singapore government has defended the sentence as necessary to further Singapore's "firm position against drug trafficking." The Australian government, meanwhile, has called the sentence barbaric.
There's more information about the efforts to stop this execution at stophanging.com and Amnesty International-Australia's site, including the Amnesty International sponsored "Reach Out" campaign.
***UPDATE 12/2***
Nguyen Tuong Van was executed this morning.
***UPDATE 12/2***
***UPDATE 12/3***
Although it received at least slightly more media attention here in the U.S. than the execution of Nguyen Tuong Van, it probably bears mentioning that Kenneth Lee Boyd was executed in North Carolina yesterday, becoming the 1,000th person executed in the United States since SCOTUS ruled that capital punishment could resume in the United States in 1976.
***UPDATE 12/3***
posted by Kierkegaard Lives at 2:50 PM
1 Comments:
Long, sad story on this yesterday on the BBC.
I have pasted you to my blogroll, and named you in a post today.
best
Sam
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