Ronald Ryan dead 40 years: A call to action
It’s 40 years since Australia executed anyone. Forty years ago today a flock of pigeons took flight from the roof of Pentridge Gaol in Melbourne when the gallows trap crashed open under Ronald Ryan’s feet. He was, and may he remain, the last person executed in Australia.
On this bleak anniversary Lex Lasry QC reminds us of Australia’s commitment to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. That brief and uncompromising treaty binds Australia not only to abolition of capital punishment in all its jurisdictions, but also to promote abolition around the world.
Australia is failing its international obligations in that regard, failing to condemn outright the death sentences of convicted terrorists such as Amrozi bin Nurhasyim in Indonesia and tyrant Saddam Hussein. How can such vote-winning woolliness help Australians facing the death penalty in Indonesia and elsewhere?
There are many reasons to oppose capital punishment. Speaking at the Law Institute of Victoria yesterday, Ryan’s biographer Mike Richards and Lasry both cited the lasting impact of executions on those involved, such as lawyers, journalists, politicians and, of course, family members.
Echoing Raimond Gaita’s call to keep the reality of torture vividly before us when debating that form of inhumanity, so must we try to keep the reality of execution before us, whether it be by hanging — itself a form of torture — or any other means.
It is worth mentioning in this connection the execution by hanging of Saddam Hussein’s half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti last month. Video released by the Iraqi government apparently shows Barzan decapitated by the noose. Whether through ignorance or a political motive, Barzan’s lawyer Issam al-Ghazzawi was quoted as saying, "I never heard or read that executing a human being can sever his head from the body – unless it was cut [off] after he was dead."
He is wrong, however. It is certainly possible for a hanging, ineptly or carelessly performed without regard for the victim’s height and weight, to decapitate.
As unsympathetic as Barzan, Hussein and Amrozi may be, the right to life is universal and inalienable. Human rights are for everyone, not just the virtuous.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague tries people accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. There could scarcely be more heinous or violent crimes coming to trial. And yet the ICC, in keeping with the global zeitgeist, does not have recourse to the death penalty.
Australians wishing to contribute to the international fight against the death penalty may support the legal and humanitarian NGO Reprieve Australia. Readers in Britain and the US may wish to do the same. Also, contact your local member of parliament to call for greater effort to engage retentionist neighbours and allies in dialogue about why capital punishment doesn’t work.
