Update: More news and reaction from the defendants and their families. A short video of Ms. Lawrence's sentencing is here.
Australia's The Age has an editorial against the death penalty today that begins,
The fate of the Bali nine highlights the inadequate support available to citizens charged with crimes overseas.
As to the two smugglers who were sentenced to death, the editors opines:
They were willing to peddle a drug that causes untold misery and death. They deserve to pay a heavy price for their deeds, but not even this reprehensible crime justifies a punishment that denies all hope of redemption or rehabilitation.
....These Australians face punishments very different from those that apply here. Our democracy, for all its faults, is based on respect for human life and the state does not have the power of life or death over its citizens. Yet, the Government's lack of clear policies on the matter, which allowed the Federal Police to assist Indonesia in arresting the Bali nine, have now resulted in two more young Australians facing gruesome and untimely deaths.
Those sentenced to death will meet their fate at dawn on an unannounced day.
THE shots usually ring out at dawn's first light, from an isolated clearing or deserted beach. Indonesia's condemned may suffer an agonising death. Hooded and handcuffed to a chair or post, they wear a white apron with a red cross marking their heart.
Most of the 12 police volunteers, standing less than 10 metres from their targets, will fire blanks to spare their consciences from the certainty they have killed.
The condemned does not always die instantly, requiring a final shot to the heart or temple minutes later. A doctor will attend to pronounce death and the prisoners may request the presence of a priest.
The executions occur unannounced, with police often dispatching decoy convoys to distract relatives or the media. The condemned receive about three days' warning.
