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| Wednesday, July 27, 2005 |
| A chance for Schapelle? |
Remember Schapelle Corby, the Australian woman who was sentenced to 20 years in an Indonesian prison for smuggling 4kg of Marijuana into Bali, despite her insistence that she was an innocent victim of an Australian smuggling ring?
Now a drug dealer in Australia has confessed that the bag was meant for him and that Schapelle knew nothing about it. The dealer is willing to testify to free Schapelle if the Australian government grants him immunity and assurances that he won't be extradited to Indonesia. That will be tricky as Indonesia goes to great length the imprison drug smugglers.
Of course there's a chance that he's making it up to be the hero, but in a case with as much uncertainty as this one, shouldn't the Australian government do everything they can to take this guy's word for it and make the deal?
In my opinion it is much more important for free democratic societies to ensure that innocent people are not punished for crimes they didn't commit (hence the "beyond a reasonable doubt standard"), than to make sure all criminals are locked up. That same reasoning is largely the genesis of my position as vehemently against the death penatly - there are many cases in which we can ever be 100% sure we get it right, and execution eliminates the possibility of later vindication. |
posted by CB @ 12:10 PM   |
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