Singapore's Chief executioner and hangman Darshan Singh has been fired. TalkLeft profiled hangman Singh here, noting that he has hanged 850 people in his 43 years as Singapore's hangman.

Unfortunately, it will not help Nguyen Tuong Van, an Australian of Vietnamese descent who is set to be hanged on December 2 for an offense involving 400 grams of heroin. Singapore is importing a new hangman within days.

Singapore's execution statistics are abominable.

Singapore has one of the world's toughest drug laws. Laws enacted in 1975 stipulate death by hanging for anyone aged 18 or over convicted of carrying more than 15 grams (0.5 ounce) of heroin, 30 grams (1.1 ounce) of cocaine, 500 grams (17.6 ounces) of cannabis or 250 grams (8.8 ounces) of methamphetamines.

Amnesty International said in a 2004 report that about 420 people had been hanged in Singapore since 1991, mostly for drug trafficking, giving the city-state of 4.2 million people the highest execution rate in the world relative to population.

Update: Australian Prime Minister John Howard says his fifth and final meeting with Singapore officials to spare Nguyen's life or agree to have his case transferred to the International Criminal Court has failed. Nguyen is to be hanged on Friday.

The Philadelphia Inquirer today has a disturbing article about the jailing of outspoken criminal defense lawyers in China.

Lawyers viewed as troublesome, or those who vigorously toil on civil-rights or criminal cases, can face obstacles unknown in the West. They're beaten, disbarred, threatened and otherwise harassed. With surprising frequency, they follow their clients into the maw of China's prison system.

On the surface, China has the scaffolding of a functioning judiciary, with prosecutors, law schools, a tiered court system, and even occasional jury trials....scholars say there's less than meets the eye on protections of basic civil and legal freedoms. The presumption of guilt looms over all those accused of crimes.

The article provides a revealing glimpse into China's legal system.

Oh what a tangled they weave....

Police found five packages of cocaine and thousands of dollars in cash in the office of Guatemala's top anti-drug cop, shortly after he was lured to America and arrested on charges of conspiring to ship cocaine into the United States.

The shocking arrests of Adan Castillo and two of his deputies by U.S. officials prompted Guatemalan President Oscar Berger on Wednesday to pledge to renew anti-trafficking programs in this Central American nation that is a key transit point for drugs heading north.

According to a U.S. official, the FBI lured the three here under the pretense of attending a drug trafficking program.

Conservatives would have you believe that the riots in Paris are the work of an organized Islamic group. Not so, says a leading French journalist, as reported by Doug Ireland:

"That's not true -- this isn't being organized by the Islamist fundamentalists, as Sarkozy is implying to scare people. Sure, kids in neighborhoods are using their cellphones and text messages to warn each other where the cops are coming so they can move and pick other targets for their arson. But the rebellion is spreading across the country because the youth have a sense of solidarity with each other that comes from watching television -- they imitate what they're seeing, they have experienced themselves the same racist police abuse that helped spark the riots, and they sense themselves targeted by Sarkozy's inflammatory rhetoric.

I often criticize aspects of America's criminal justice system, particularly our over-reliance on incarceration and the unduly harsh sentences meted out to non-violent offenders. But I also try to remind people that for all its flaws, America has the best criminal justice system in the world.

Reports such as this in today's New York Times make my stomach churl. Read it before, not after breakfast. But please, read it.

Where are Bono, Geldorf and Live Aid? Where are Madonna and Green Day? If they are so concerned about the people of Africa, shouldn't they be doing something to publicize the plight of those imprisoned in Africa for years without a trial, in cells that house 160 inmates in the size of a 2-car garage where the only drinking water is from the single toilet that often doesn't work? Where inmates who have yet to be convicted of a crime die from diseases borne of the filth?

Unfortunately, this is a true story.

photo by journalist Alan Shadrake,

Darshan Singh is Singapore's official executioner. He has hanged more than 850 people in his 43 years on the job. He wants to retire. But he can't find a replacement.

"He tried to train two would-be hangmen to replace him, a Malaysian and a Chinese, both in the prison service," [his] colleague said. "But when it came to pulling the lever for the real thing, they both froze and could not do it.

The pot-bellied grandfather and former Singapore caner has an all-time record of hanging 18 people in one day. He hangs his victims while wearing very casual attire, usually a t-shirt and shorts.

At a speech at Washington's New America Foundation Wednesday, Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff made some serious charges against the Bush Administration:

Vice-President Dick Cheney and a handful of others had hijacked the government's foreign policy apparatus, deciding in secret to carry out policies that had left the US weaker and more isolated in the world, the top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed on Wednesday.

In a scathing attack on the record of President George W. Bush, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, said: “What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.

An Indonesian Appeals Court has cut Schapelle Corby's 20 year sentence imposed for importing 4 kilos of pot into Bali, a charge she has claimed she is innocent of, from 20 years to 15 years. Her family is devastated.

Corby's sister said her family was devastated by the appeal court's decision. "She didn't do it. She should be free," Mercedes Corby said. "I was expecting the Australian government to do something. We're not happy in this sentence and we will appeal immediately."

Her lawyer also complains:

Giblets at the inimitable Fafblog today:

Oh sure, so Chavez wants to sell you gas now. But what he won't tell you is that it's commie gas. Infiltrating your engine, redistributing wealth in your carburetor, nationalizing your internal combustion engine, assasinating czars in your windshield wiper fluid! Oh, he has plans. Dark red Marxist plans - and they're headed right for your gas tank! You were warned, America - you were warned!

Also highly recommended, Medium Lobster at Fafblog on the birth of Iraq.

Schappelle Corby is about to get some company. 24 year old Australian model Michelle Leslie was arrested Saturday night in Bali after police searched her handbag and found two ecstasy pills. She faces 15 years in prison. No bail is allowed.

Pictures of Michelle and the pills are here.

Beginning today in the San Francisco Chronicle, actor Sean Penn chronicles his June trip to Iran. It's really good. Beginning with the pilot's pre-landing announcement:

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very important announcement to make. For all our female passengers, by decree of the government of Iran, all female visitors are required to keep their heads covered. In your own interest, therefore, we ask you to put on a scarf before leaving the aircraft in Tehran. Thank you." With that, women clamored for the lavatory. One at a time as they exited, hundreds of years of transformation had occurred. All of these modern women, who would've looked quite at home dancing in a Paris nightclub, were now covered head to toe in black chadors, makeup scrubbed from their faces, cleavages and midriffs a memory.

Penn also describes a prayer service he went to - attended by 10,000 - the leader had the crowd chanting, "Death to Israel, Death to America."

It's a very grim portrait, but one you should take the time to read.

by TChris

Countries that refuse to immunize Americans from prosecution in the International Criminal Court are feeling the wrath of the Bush administration.

The United States has … cut aid to some two dozen nations that refused to sign immunity agreements that American officials say are intended to protect American soldiers and policy makers from politically motivated prosecutions.

As usual, the Bush administration’s heavy handed approach to diplomacy is making the country less secure.