Reflections on the Death Penalty: 17 April 2007

On 17 April 2007 DLA Phillips Fox hosted our panel discussion on the Legal, Social and Spiritual Ramifications of the Death Penalty. The panellists were Father Peter Norden SJ (Associate Director of Jesuit Social Services and parish priest to Van Ngyuen's family), Andrea Durbach (Director of UNSW's Australian Human Rights Centre and defence counsel in the case of the Upington 25 which was the last death penalty trial in South Africa) and Brian Morley (journalist and public relations consultant who was a witness to the execution of Ronald Ryan).

Reprieve Vice President Rachel Walsh chaired the forum and, using various written works such as Mike Richard's biography of Ronald Ryan and Andrea Durbach's own book on the Upington trial, led the panellists through a compelling discussion of their personal experiences of the death penalty.

Brian Morley spoke eloquently and movingly of the deep emotional impact that witnessing Ronald Ryan's execution has had on the rest of his life, driving him to campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in Australia and to ensure that it never returns.

Peter Norden spoke of the impact of Ryan's execution on Father Brosnan, who was prison chaplain at Pentridge at the time of the execution, and also of his own role in supporting and counselling Van Ngyuen's family at the time of his execution in Singapore in 2005.

Andrea Durbach's story of the prejudice and injustice rampant in the trial of the Upington 25 for the murder of a police officer was all too familiar to those of us who have undertaken Reprieve internships in the US.

Carole Price also spoke briefly and movingly from the floor about her own experiences of the execution of Ronald Ryan, as the daughter of George Hodgson, the prison guard for whose killing Ryan was hanged, and her own personal journey to opposing the death penalty.