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Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran will face an Indonesian firing squad after losing their final appeals against the death sentence. Three other Australians are imprisoned overseas and facing death for trafficking offences. In the four decades since we abolished the death penalty in Australia, some serious appeals have been made on behalf of overseas prisoners, and some have received mere lip service. The AFP’s Mick Keelty has successfully stepped in to support the appeal of Scott Rush, another member of the Bali nine. How are we making the decision of who gets to live and who deserves to die? Why has there been so little response to another state sanctioned killing of an Australian? How do we learn to turn a blind eye?

When asked recently why she didn’t denounce the final condemnation of Andrew Chan to a death by firing squad, Julia Gillard replied, “I don’t want to get into commentary about the judicial system of other countries because it’s not appropriate”. How has the killing of another human being become a question of appropriateness rather than principle? Our current government’s response to those facing the death penalty overseas is to let others do our bidding. We then pretend that we are both powerless and without agency in the decision to kill these young men, and in the choice of who we will allow to die. Where does this ability to seal someone’s fate and simultaneously abdicate responsibility come from?

We first learn that someone has to be chosen for violence in our homes.

For the thousands of us who grew up with violent parents, guardians or siblings, the violence was inevitable and inescapable. It was a question only of who would be hurt. If it wasn’t us, it would be someone else. But stopping the violence altogether was never within our control as children. When we are examining our responses to the application of the death penalty and the choices made about who will die and who will be granted clemency, our own histories of violence may well be at the root of our responses.

You can read the rest of this article at newmatilda