Indonesia Executions Show Hurdles Of Death Penalty Diplomacy

Australia's fight to save Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran from imminent execution, and Indonesia's fight to maintain control of its own legal system, has devolved into a diplomatic battle rife with accusations of hypocrisy, power plays and moral superiority. "For a diplomat, the death penalty cases are always the hardest ones because they involve a supreme act of sovereignty — the foreign state believing it has the right to take the life of someone that's committed a crime — but also a supreme loss of sovereignty that a country isn't able to protect its citizens overseas," said Andrew Carr, an international relations expert at The Australian National University. Officials never told Leal he could contact the Mexican consulate for help, which the International Court of Justice later ruled to be a violation of his rights. In a letter supporting legislation that could have given Leal an avenue for appeal had it passed before he was executed, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder wrote: "The United States is best positioned to demand that foreign governments respect consular rights with respect to U.S.

 

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