Death sentence for British woman

I used to do that too!

Re the death penalty.. I had read about the case earlier ..did sound as though the woman has been foolish rather than wicked.. possibly because of mental health / vulnerability /blackmail.

I am anti capital punishment.

And a lot of the people involved are probably on cocaine as well as a way of controlling them, and any drugs of that kind take away any morality that people may have had.

Me too nanaej totally against capital punishment of any kind. In my VHO the death penalty is like "legalised murder" . I am not a " do gooder" I just strongly believe in the " 2 wrongs, do not make a right" theory.

I am against capital punishment in principal so whatever the rights and wrongs of the case I would be distressed by the passing of the death sentence. I do not know the rights and wrong, ins and out but have read passing reports of threats to this woman's children to force her co-operation. If that really is the reason why she imported the cocaine into Bali, I feel even more desperately sorry for the poor woman.

I don't agree with the death penalty either and I feel very sorry for this lady. However, just how was she traffiked by drug traffikers - why not go to the police who would give her every assistance. I think she was totally ignorant of what could happen to her and just fell in with them hoping to make some money. There are plenty of countries like Indonesia who do not treat their prisoners as we treat ours. I said in another thread that you can judge a country's integrity by the way they treat their prisoners. We can hope to educate them to change their methods, various NGO's can approach them for any mercy towards their inmates. Thats all we can do - it's their country and just because we don't like their methods doesn't mean they have to change. I don't think they will execute a 50 year old granny -I think they are hoping to scare any other would be druggies.

dorsetpent I don't know what the threats were in this instance or even if they existed. However, I do know someone in this country who was approached as a juror and informed that if he didn't come to the "right' decision, his eight-year-old daughter would be gang raped. It was made clear that informing the court and being excused from the jury wouldn't prevent the threat from being carried out. It was also made clear that informing the police would make no difference either. Threats from organised criminal gangs whose activities involve vast sums of money are not so easily dealt with as you suggest. I should think that it would be even harder to deal with them in a foreign country.

I find it very hard to feel any sympathy for this woman. Everyone knows how they treat drug smugglers and that they use the death penalty. She can't commit this crime and then try to play the 'British card'.

We can and should campaign against the death penalty but as it stands at the moment this is the punishment and everyone knows it.

I agree it is very difficult to feel sorry for what she did vampirequeen but having the death penalty hanging over her must be terrifying. I am not sure whether the Indonesian courts were making an example of her when they handed down the death penalty, knowing full well that it would spark outrage.

When travelling to these countries there are signs stating that they have the death penalty for drug smuggling so she was aware of the risks. Whether there were threats to her children (who are in their 20s) I don't know, but if you believe her then she does appear to have been a small cog in the whole enterprise and the death penalty does seem to be a bit extreme.

I am a bit of a hypocrite in that whilst I am against the death penalty in general there are some people for whom I think it would be justified, those responsible for mass murder in the name of "ethnic cleansing" for starters. Also, of course, I know I could not actually carry out the execution myself, making me even more of a hypocrite.

I am finding it difficult to imagine how she came into contact with the drug traffickers and got herself embroiled into the whole thing, had she approached some low life in the hope to make some money, and if that's the case maybe she should have thought of the consequences those actions would bring.
I don't agree with the death penalty but feel she is being made an example of by the Indonesian authorities who knew how this case would attract world attention.

She is one of many older ladies who have been stopped carrying drugs into Countries where the sentences are dire, do these women think because of their age they will not be searched do they think the authorities in these Countries are not up to speed with their information as to where the drugs are coming from,whilst I also disagree with a death penalty I do feel she should have had more common sense at her age,I am waiting to-day to see what the sentences are for the other people involved in this trial the sentences are due sometime to-day according to news.

I think these last few posts are expressing what I've been feeling. She is no naive child, but a mature woman who should know better. Nothing was smuggled into her luggage, she carried it knowingly. She might, or might not, be a small cog in the system and I wonder if this is the first time she's carried cocaine, or just the first time she's been caught. But even small cogs need to be rooted out as they are an essential part of the chain that brings pain, misery and death to millions.
I've travelled widely in these countries and there are sign everywhere, you can't miss them, spelling out the consequences of drug smuggling. I suspect the death penalty will be commuted into a prison sentence and then she will be transferred to a British jail.

I did read in the paper , quote from a neighbour "she was always up to no good "

If you can"t do the time don"t do the crime ! Death penalty seems a bit harsh though !

I also read the neighbour's comment. I couldn't help wondering why, if one of her children had been threatened, she didn't contact the police, but after that remark decided, possibly unfairly, that she maybe had an 'uneasy' relationship with her local force. My opinion of the sentence is she knew the law and deliberately broke it, noe she must take the punishment. I don't feel sorry for her.

It has apparently been reported in the Times that she was well known on the local drug scene, making repeated trips from UK via India and smuggling "hashish" and had recently moved into cocaine. It was reported that a number of big western drug dealers and left the island after she had been arrested and was co-operating with the authorities. If these reports are true then she is not the innocent she is claiming to be

I'm against the death penalty period.

Barrow I've also read a few things which rather undermine her claims of being coerced.

We also read about how Madeleine McCann's mother had habitually drugged her and eventually killed her in the newspapers – oh, and that murderous landlord in Bristol.

Yes indeed. The papers print a lot of damn lies - particularly about powerless people who have no way of challenging them. One of our members had a family member who was harrassed by the press rather badly and the issue was nothing at all to do with crime.
Drug trafficers would not make a living if there was no market. there are a lot of arrogant young people on good incomes who think it is sophisticated and clever to use cocaine. And a lot of "celebrities" make no secret of their using it.

I wonder who the target market is in Indonesia - young westerners on holiday in Bali? Just maybe?

I talked to a number of our younger members of staff at work yesterday about this. They all thought that she 'deserved' the sentence she received and that she had set an appalling example to her children. I haven't read any reports by neighbours and tend not to take much notice of these reports, I don't have much respect for the British press.
If you visit a country with draconian laws, it doesn't matter if you believe them or not, you have to obey them or suffer the consequences. We expect travellers to this country to obey our laws afterall.

On the contrary, I doubt if her children (grown up now I think) will ever be involved in drug smuggling.

Isn't it interesting how self-righteous young people can be?

Is it fair to label anyone who disapproves of another person's behaviour as self righteous? One dictionary definition is 'smugly moralistic' - I would find that a difficult judgement to make unless I was actually there and could hear the tone.

I think it is fine to make a generalisation ceesnan - it is not as if absent is accusing other posters is it. If someone thinks younger people can be self righteous why should they not express that view?
It is interesting absent but then they are drawing on a fairly narrow experience of life when they are making judgements. I find it is less easy to be polarised in my views as I get older because I have the life experience to help me see various sides of an argument. When I was 18 it was much easier to be emphatic on moral questions.

Political ones too. I think things often seem much more black and white to young people – this is good, that is bad – with no room for manoeuvre, until they learn from experience that there are large grey areas about nearly everything.

I agree Jess, when I was 18 everything was black and white, now I am older I also see a lot of grey areas!