Save Curumim!

Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, nickname Curumim (little child in native Brazilian language), is a Brazilian citizen that knows the moment of his death is getting closer.He is one of 113 individuals on death row in Indonesia. All legal possibilities for a commutation in his death sentence have been exhausted. The only hope for Marco Archer is for His Excellency President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to grant him clemency. The entire situation, according to the Brazilian government, is very delicate.

Very delicate, indeed. Marco Archer was a sportsman for his entire life. He a South American hang-gliding champion, who made the serious mistake of trying, in 2003, to enter Indonesiacarrying a shipment of cocaine. This action resulted from intense pressure caused by a large debt incurred after a stay ina Singapore hospital resulting from a near-fatal accident.

A first-time offender, he deeply regrets his past mistake e asks for a commutation of his execution sentence. In Indonesia, death sentences are by firing squad on open field.

The United Nations Human Rights Council stipulated that, in the event of miscarriage of justice, the death penalty is irreversible and irreparable. It also violates the rights of humans to be treated with dignity, without cruelty, and in a non-degrading manner. Non-governmental organizations propose that death sentence fails at curbing criminal activities, the veryreasons for its existence.

Fortunately, the death sentence has progressively declined worldwide in recent years. By 1977, 16 countries had abolished the procedure. By 2001, 108 countries had eliminated the death penalty and, in 2010, this number rose to 139.(Data from Amnesty International.) There is a universal trend that,we hope, is here to stay.

Brazil is one of the countries that adopted the death penalty moratorium proposed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Indonesia, however, still favors the capitalpunishment.

We view sentencing of our friend Marco Archer to death is a cruel and atrocious measure.

Human justice is passive of miscarriage and eventual failures; after execution, one cannot simply turn events back and bring back a wronged individual.

The death sentence:

-negates any possibility of rehabilitation and reconciliation;

-promotes a simplistic solution to complex human problems;

-prolongs the suffering of friends and relatives of the condemned individual; 

-consumes resources and energy that could be better used to fight criminality; 

-is a symptom of, a culture of violence, not a solution to it

-affronts human dignity and should be abolished.

We respectfully request, by means of this petition, clemency and commutation of death penalty, which would mitigate the suffering that Marco Archer and his family have been subjected to in the past many years. 

We ask for a second chance for Marco Archer.

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