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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask if you know about the executions taking place today?

237 replies

kewtogetin · 28/04/2015 14:08

I have been following the case of the 'Bali 9' for years but it seems today is the end of the road for Andrew chan and myuran sukumaran. They are due to be executed at 5pm UK time.
I have just watched their families leaving the jail for the last time after saying their final goodbyes. It was heartbreaking. This is not really a post about the rights and wrongs of the death penalty (although I am massively against) but I can't help feeling this is more of a punishment for the families than for those who committed the crime.
I believe death isn't the punishment but fear. Saying goodbye to your children/parents etc, being marched through the rain forest, tied to a wooden stake with a hood over your head and then shot through the heart. It's just barbaric.....
What do you think? And no 'if you can't do the time don't do the crime' spouters please. Two men (actually 2 of 11 I believe) will die today but glorying in it is disrespectful at best.

OP posts:
The4Cs · 28/04/2015 14:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

wannaBe · 28/04/2015 14:56

And how much consideration did these criminals give their own families? (Hmm) yes, it is heartbreaking for the families. (Sad)

But while I personally don't agree with the death penalty, fact is some countries do.

It's very simple really. Don't want to be put to death? Then don't commit crimes in countries that have the death penalty.

Ripeberry · 28/04/2015 15:01

If families of criminals were made to pay for the care of the guilty. Then that would be fair on society as well. Innocent people who live too long are made to feel as if they are a drain on their families when they have to go into care. How come no-one is bothered about the huge cost of keeping all these 'bad' people?

googoodolly · 28/04/2015 15:01

I'm against the death penalty, but everyone knows these countries have strict laws about drug trafficking. If you risk it there, you're an idiot, really. My sympathy is with their families more than anyone else - it must be awful to watch your family member's deaths play out on the media like that.

I really don't understand why you would sit and watch it, though.

hidingfromthem · 28/04/2015 15:03

maybe these criminals shouldn't have smuggled drugs, then.
do you think the Bali 9 had the best interests of drug addicts at heart?

and remember its not just the drug smuggling but all the other associated criminal activity of drug production such as murder, assault, rape, prostitution, extortion, corruption, theft etc.
i rest my case.

WorraLiberty · 28/04/2015 15:04

I have just watched their families leaving the jail for the last time after saying their final goodbyes

Just watching it now on sky news, the ambulances have arrived at the jail, along with their coffins, it's heartbreaking watching myurans mother and sister.

Why??

Yes it does sound heartbreaking from what you describe, but why would you want to sit and watch that? Confused

SirChenjin · 28/04/2015 15:07

You could say the same about all horrendous news stories - why do we watch any of them?

FyreFly · 28/04/2015 15:08

I would suggest that the drugs trade is much more barbaric than what is about to happen to these men.

I don't really have any strong feelings either way, although my heart goes out to their families. I can't say I have the slightest bit of sympathy for the men though, given how many people are killed through the trade and use of illegal drugs every day.

WorraLiberty · 28/04/2015 15:09

I think watching a horrendous news story and watching grieving families saying their last goodbyes, is completely different.

Kind of like grief surfing in a way. No real point in it.

googoodolly · 28/04/2015 15:11

Watching the news is a bit different to watching families say their last goodbyes to their dying relatives in full view of the world's media.

SirChenjin · 28/04/2015 15:15

I think it depends on the story. It's impossible to say that one story 'should' be watched and another 'shouldn't' imo. Whether the media should have created the scrum that it did and afforded the relatives such little amount of respect an dignity is something that I find abhorrent.

CrystalCove · 28/04/2015 15:15

I do sympathise with the families but they obviously weren't thinking of them when they decided to break the law, especially in a country with the death penalty.

OP I takevut you also have sympathy for the families of everyone who has lost a loved one through drugs.

Bambambini · 28/04/2015 15:19

I often don't watch or read horrible reports. We have news overload these days.

Original poster
kewtogetin · 28/04/2015 15:19

People make decisions, sometimes not very good ones. The 2 of the Bali 9 being executed today were teenagers when they attempted to smuggle drugs.
People make decisions to take drugs, again not very good decisions. I don't think either of these scenarios are any 'better' than the other.

OP posts:
Aermingers · 28/04/2015 15:20

Hmmm, well, when your child or sibling dies in a grotty flat from an overdose or is prostituting themselves on an industrial estate it doesn't make quite such a dramatic spectacle for the media so they're generally not there.

I don't agree with the death penalty in cases like this (and I'm not convinced they're even going to go ahead), I would prefer long prison sentences. But I cannot join in with the martyring and weeping and wailing over these people. They would quite cheerfully have inflicted death and misery on other families for their own financial gain so I find it hard to muster up much sympathy for their predicament.

LunaMay · 28/04/2015 15:21

I can't watch anything about it anymore, i feel for them and their families, it cant be nice knowing thata how youre going to go.

I just have to say being on facebook and reading comments, why do people say they knew the risk and deserve what they get but in the same breath they say 'what about the people/families the drugs could have destroyed?' ummm if they have to accept responsibility for their choices why not the people taking the drugs, destroying their life is the result of their own choice. - vent over.

SunnyBaudelaire · 28/04/2015 15:24

" And no 'if you can't do the time don't do the crime' spouters please. "

so you are asking for only a certain type of opinion that will agree with you? and then insulting anyone who has a different opinion to you by using the verb 'spouting'. Just wtf?
Honestly? If you know a country has the death penalty for drugs, it is simple, don't do drugs.

Original poster
kewtogetin · 28/04/2015 15:25

Luna- because unfortunately in society it goes;
Drug addict = victim
Drug smuggler = evil bad guy

OP posts:
ThumbWitchesAbroad · 28/04/2015 15:27

I'm more exercised over the execution of Mary Jane Veloso than the Bali 9 ringleaders - if her story is true, then she was completely duped, and her recruiter has handed herself into police just in the last few hours. This may stay her execution, it may not. I hope it does.

I really hope that they ALL have last minute pardons - but who knows.

Original poster
kewtogetin · 28/04/2015 15:28

No sunny I'm not asking for that at all, a fact you would know if you read the whole thread.....
It's not a discussion on the death penalty, that's cut and dried, it's going ahead. More a commentary on this particular case.

OP posts:
SunnyBaudelaire · 28/04/2015 15:30

yes well after reading your OP in which you prescribed which opinions should or should not be held, I could not really be arsed to read the whole thread.

WaywardOn3 · 28/04/2015 15:30

Yes it is very sad for the families and I have every sympathy for them. Not much sympathy for the drug smugglers, they knew the risks involved and had no problem attempting to smuggle drugs that had the potential to kill people.

Would you feel as sorry for those smugglers if they'd been successful and their drugs were traced back to several deaths?

LeBearPolar · 28/04/2015 15:30

I have a great deal of sympathy for the families. And I don't support the death penalty.

But the prisoners chose to do what they did knowing what the consequences would be if they were caught. I have limited sympathy for that. You say: And no 'if you can't do the time don't do the crime' spouters please but why not?Why shouldn't we acknowledge the arrogance of those humans who assume that somehow the rules don't apply to them? (And who are you to dictate how people should respond anyway?)

My sympathy is with the families of the prisoners, who are caught up in something horrific and completely out of their control, and for all the genuine victims of the drugs trade. And I don't include drugs smugglers in that.

WorraLiberty · 28/04/2015 15:31

Luna- because unfortunately in society it goes;
Drug addict = victim
Drug smuggler = evil bad guy

Well yes, but why 'unfortunately'? Confused

Unless they were forced at gunpoint to smuggle drugs, I don't see what's unfortunate.

morethanpotatoprints · 28/04/2015 15:33

They are murderers and this is what happens to them in certain counties.

I feel sorry for their families to a certain extent
More sympathy for the victims and their families.
The latter neither raised the murderers nor had anything to do with them, just wrong place, wrong time.
So sad.

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