Criminal law, International, Politics, Religion, Society

Indonesia Under Fire For Executing Mentally Ill Man As He Begged For Last Rites

images-2125px-Flag_of_Indonesia.svgAn execution in Indonesia had led to the withdrawal of ambassadors after an international outcry over the treatment of Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, a Brazilian man who was a paranoid schizophrenic accused of drug dealing. Moreira was reportedly dragged from this cell and denied last rites with a priest. He soiled himself and was quickly hosed down before being thrown in front of a firing squad.


Cilacap priest Father Charles Burrows said that he desperately tried to see Moreira to offer him the comfort of last rites but was denied. The prison says that it was a mix up.

Moreira was executed on January 18th, He was shot by firing squad on Nusakambangan, Indonesia’s execution island. The final moments were described as horrific as he wept and begged for last rites.

Brazil insisted that as a paranoid schizophrenic, Moreira should have been spared. Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff responded to the execution by delaying the acceptance of credentials for Indonesia’s representative.

By the way, while we do not execute people for drug dealing, being a paranoid schizophrenic would not necessarily stop an execution in the United States so long as the person has sufficient mental clarity to understand that they are being executed. Two years ago, the Supreme Court allowed a schizophrenic man to be executed in Florida over international objections. The standard in the U.S. was set in a case involving a paranoid schizophrenic. In Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 (1986), the Supreme Court upheld that states must give competency evaluations to guarantee that the insane are not executed. Alvin Bernard Ford was convicted of murder in 1974 and his mental health deteriorated in prison. He began referring to himself as Pope John Paul III and engaging in delusional conduct. In the later case, Justice Thurgood Marshall ruled that under the Eighth Amendment and standards consistent with “the progress of a maturing society,” there are limits on states in the execution of the mentally ill. The Court held that independent evaluations would be required with procedural protections. Ford was reevaluated and found to be incompetent to be executed.

The Court later ruled in Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), that executing intellectually disabled individuals may also violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments, but left it to states to define what constitutes mental retardation or intellectual disability. Then last year in Hall v. Florida the Court held that a bright-line IQ threshold requirement for determining whether someone has an intellectual disability (formerly mental retardation) is unconstitutional in deciding whether they are eligible for the death penalty. The Court ruled that states must look beyond a simple IQ test to make such judgments.

Source: SMH

41 thoughts on “Indonesia Under Fire For Executing Mentally Ill Man As He Begged For Last Rites”

  1. Thank you, Webster.

    But it’s so civilized in the U.S. You see, it’s overseen by the brilliant graduates of our top-tier universities. This is the #ruleoflaw

  2. With all of the botched lethal injection executions happening in USA, this maybe a blessing in disguise.

  3. “On February 6, 2011, in Cikeusik Village, West Java – more than 1.000 furious Muslims lynched three members of a minority (or, as seen by some Muslims, ‘deviant’) Islamic sect Ahmadiyah. Two days later, on February 8 in Temanggung, Central Java, a crowd stormed a local courthouse and vandalized three churches after a man – a former priest who allegedly insulted both Islam and Christianity in his pamphlet – was sentenced to five years in prison, the maximum sentence. Protesters demanded the death penalty. A third attack soon followed.“

    They decapitated the figures of the Last Supper in the church:
    http://www.japanfocus.org/data/11_Decapitated_diners_at_Last_Supper.JPG

    From: Intolerance, Religious Lynchings and the Future of Indonesia in The Asia-Pacific Journal, Februrary 21, 2011.

  4. po

    You should read more carefully. My finger points in all directions when it finds contradictions, at myself as well. I stated that there are many of the Islamic faith that would find this offensive. It is shown on a daily basis that there are many who would not. I also stated that on the societally evolutionary curve Islam is far, about 700 years, behind the West and/or Christianity. This is proven on a daily basis by beheading, flogging, jailing, etc for what the more socially advanced nations regard as protected rights. Seven hundred years ago the Christian nations did the same and worse.

    Read more carefully.

  5. ‘Time of Tolerance’ May Be Coming to End in Indonesia

    “Among cases of religious intolerance that made media headlines in Indonesia this year are an FPI attack against members of the minority Islamic sect Ahmadiyah in Ciamis, West Java in June; the ban on hijab in a number of schools in predominantly Hindu Bali; and the attack on a house hosting a Catholic mass in Yogyakarta in May.

    Nurkhoiron said radical mobs especially had been encouraged to keep launching attacks against the minority due to poor law enforcement. Even in the absence of a law specifically guaranteeing the right to religious freedom for minorities, any cases of violence and assaults should be considered crimes, in line with the Criminal Code.

    Nurkhoiron added the intolerance and violence cases were often encouraged or aggravated by some regulations, as well as fatwas issued by local ulema, such as edits of the Indonesian Council of Ulema, or MUI.

    Hard-line groups such as the FPI have based their violent protests against the Ahmadist on an edict issued by the MUI in 2005 that read: “Ahmadiyah isn’t part of Islam. It is deviant and misleading. Therefore, people who adhere to the religion are infidels.”

    Bylaws in several regions in Indonesia have been subject to rights activists’ criticism because they are considered discriminatory, most notably in Aceh, the only province in Indonesia allowed to adopt the sharia bylaw following its history of secessionist rebellion.

    Meanwhile, members of GKI Yasmin congregation in Bogor remained unable to hold a Christmas service inside their church on Thursday. This is the fifth year that they have been unable to hold Christmas service in the church since it was sealed by local authorities in 2010.

    GKI Yasmin obtained a permit to open a church in Bogor in 2006, but the permit was later revoked by the municipal government following pressure from local hard-line Islamic groups.“

  6. Karen, Saudi Arabia also has the death penalty for drug trafficking. I read that they passed a law last year that made the death penalty applicable to smuggling Bibles into the country too.

  7. “Indonesia practices a very tolerant form of islam”
    Partly true.

    From SpiegelWhere Allah Rocks: Indonesia’s Tolerant Take on Islam 11/7/2013

    “There have been periodic attacks by Islamist fanatics, with the worst claiming 202 lives on the island of Bali in 2002. But terrorism is seen as the exception in Indonesia, while religious tolerance is the norm. For many people, Southeast Asian Islam serves as proof that an open-minded, gentler version of the religion exists.”

    However…:

    “The autonomous province of Aceh, with a population of about 5 million, including 250,000 in the capital, is now tightly managed — very tightly, in fact. The province is ruled by religious fanatics, and a strict version of Islamic Sharia law is rigorously applied.

    A young woman was flogged near the provincial capital because she was caught kissing her boyfriend in a park. The morality police conduct regular inspections. Anyone with long hair is considered “punk” and can expect to be locked up. It is considered indecent for schoolgirls to wear trousers.

    Sulaiman Abda, deputy chairman of the regional parliament, feels that the current punishments are too lenient. He is one of the supporters of a bill to expand public flogging, which would call for 40 lashes for delinquents caught with alcohol, 60 for gamblers and 100 for people engaging in homosexual activities. The bill stands a real chance of being approved. “It reflects the norms in our society,” says Abda.

    Westerners Stay Away

    Aceh was once a melting pot of many cultures. Legend has it that the name consists of the first letters of the names of the different nationalities that left their mark on the region: Arabs, Chinese, Europeans and Hindus. Aceh was an independent sultanate for decades. It became a trouble spot after Indonesian independence, with separatists still waging a bloody war just before the tsunami struck.

    European mediators used the confusion of the natural disaster to convince the opposing sides to sign a peace agreement in 2005, but it came at a high price. The new Islamist leadership was recruited from the guerilla movement, and the high degree of autonomy granted by the central government led to Aceh becoming a state within a state.“

  8. issac: I thought that the American military DID throw Bin Laden out of a plane or helicopter into the ocean to be fish food. I heard that the guy who threw him out said: “Hail Mary, Full of Grace, God Be With You…. you ickDayhead.”

    Now if that is true then we need to fair and balanced in our assessment of these Indonesians. The pot cant call the kettle ackBlay because its a pejorative word.

    If Bin Laden washes up on shore with a bullet in him then we will then know for sure that sharks don’t like lead. And, a decent shark would not eat a pervert like bin Laden. Or is it spulled Ben Laden? Why would some guy named Ben spull his name with an eye?

  9. @ Laser

    The issue is not our kindness of heart. I’m pretty sure that almost everyone decries the execution of a mentally ill man.

    Indonesia is NOT America. That we have in the past also executed mentally ill and retarded individuals is despicable and hopefully our legal system will be such that it never happens again in our country.

    However……we cannot control what happens in other countries and other cultures outside of our legal purview. Unless we just go in and take them over because we don’t like their laws or customs. Are you ready for that? I’m not.

    Don’t go to another country and break their laws and then be surprised when you are not treated as you would expect in YOUR own country.

  10. Issac
    It is not a religious issue. Indonesia practices a very tolerant form of islam.
    And this is one case we have heard about, I suspect there are many other cases that involve Muslims that we have not heard about.
    Indonesia has many Christians and other religious faiths, and it is not known that there were precedents to this.
    Jokowi, the president, was running on a campaign of harsh, fatal punishment for drug dealing offense, promising death penalty for drug dealers and prompt execution of the sentences.
    So, though you, Nick got a chubbie at the idea of pointing a finger at islam again, this one is not it.
    No worries though, you’ll find other occasions to.

  11. The kindness of heart are sorely lacking in this thread and America.

    Texas recently executed Robert Ladd. A man so mentally inept, he could neither remember his clothing sizes, nor count money. He was executed for the killing of inmate.

    Georgia did similar with Warren Hill.

    After the U.S. Supreme Court lectured on the death penalty, Texas Justice cited Steinbeck’s “Mice and Men” tale, as justification for state killings.

    “But does a consensus of Texas citizens agree that all persons who might legitimately qualify for assistance under the social services definition of mental retardation be exempt from an otherwise constitutional penalty?”

    Everyone above, seems to be of the Starship Troopers mindset…

    He’s found guilty of murder at noon – execution tonight on Channel 7

    would you like to know more?

  12. This reminds me of that movie, Paradise Lost, with Joaquin Phoenix. His character was executed for drug dealing in a foreign country.

    Some people go on drug tours in foreign countries, based on a false assumption of their laws.

    Very sad that they denied him his last rites. I do not agree with drug dealing being a capital offense.

    Do we still have ambassadors to Saudi Arabia? Why withdraw from Indonesia and not KSE when Saudi Arabia executes gays?

  14. Setting aside all the other issues, such as this individual’s mental state…..When in Rome.

    When you are in another country and another culture it is incumbent upon you to know the rules of that society and be aware of the punishments for violating those rules. If you can’t do that, then you should not go to Rome or any other foreign country.

    Does it make their rules good by our standards. Of course not. What they did was abhorrent. BUT……it is their rules.

    Those are not the rules or the moral compass that we steer our lives by. We need to be painfully aware that what WE consider correct and moral, is not necessarily what others consider. If you can’t be aware of this, you are going to be in for some very nasty surprises as an individual and even worse as a country.

    I would like to think, and I sincerely hope, that as Isaac said, this callous treatment and disregard for the condemned man’s religious desires would be offended.

  15. I do not have a problem with executing him. He seems competent to deal drugs, he is competent to be executed.

    Authoritarian sadism is so…what’s the word…sexy.

  17. It would be interesting to hear from the Imams of this country of 300+ Muslims. When the US waxed Bin Laden they gave him a proper Islamic burial. They should have just tossed him to be fish food. There is the basic difference between the evolution of two religious societies. I am sure that many Muslims are offended at the way this guy was killed, without a meeting with his religion, but the government is sorely lacking, on the evolutional curve. Not a good Islamic move here.

  18. Denying the man last rights was the ultimate in cruelty. I don’t know if the sentence was proper but saying it was a “mix up”. Makes me wonder if there was more behind the denial that we would like to admit.

  19. So in the Ford case, he was convicted and sentenced while sane but became insane in prison waiting for his sentence to be carried out; do I have that correct? Execute.

  20. I do not have a problem with executing him. He seems competent to deal drugs, he is competent to be executed. However, he should have been given the Last Rites.

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