WEBVTT - Your AM Headlines + When Execution Becomes Entertainment

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<v Speaker 1>You're listening to a Mamma Mia podcast.

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<v Speaker 2>Hi, I'm Tamsin Rose with the latest from the Quickie Newsroom.

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<v Speaker 2>There's about 25,000 people on death row around the world

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<v Speaker 2>right now. Recently, we've been hearing a lot about two

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<v Speaker 2>cases in the US, Krista Pike and Nadal Hassan.

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<v Speaker 1>We see public executions in Iran and Afghanistan and it's

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<v Speaker 1>talked about also in North Korea. Those are the types

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<v Speaker 1>of governments that use this in their playbook to really

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<v Speaker 1>silence dissent and make people feel fear. And you've got

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<v Speaker 1>to wonder why the US is going down.

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<v Speaker 2>This path as well. Today, what happens when execution enters

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<v Speaker 2>the public arena in the modern age? But first, here

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<v Speaker 2>are your headlines for Wednesday, October 14th. The Federal Health

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<v Speaker 2>Minister says adding more aged care beds won't be enough

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<v Speaker 2>to ease the pressure on emergency departments as Australia's population ages.

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<v Speaker 2>It comes as a new report from the Australasian College

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<v Speaker 2>for Emergency Medicine shows more older Australians are turning up

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<v Speaker 2>in emergency rooms and they're sicker than before. In the

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<v Speaker 2>six years to 2024, hospital visits by people over 65

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<v Speaker 2>jumped 16% compared with just 4% for younger Australians. Health

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<v Speaker 2>Minister Mark Butler says the country is at a tipping

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<v Speaker 2>point as more baby boomers enter aged care, and there's

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<v Speaker 2>more work to do to make sure health and aged

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<v Speaker 2>care services are up to scratch. And a warning on

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<v Speaker 2>this one. This story contains the name of a deceased

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<v Speaker 2>Indigenous person. A Melbourne apartment block's entrance has been covered

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<v Speaker 2>with flowers and tributes following the death of a 21-year-old woman.

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<v Speaker 2>Jada Allen Bonner was found dead by emergency services at

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<v Speaker 2>the complex in Carlton in inner Melbourne just before 2am

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<v Speaker 2>on Saturday. A 60-year-old man was arrested shortly after and

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<v Speaker 2>released pending further inquiries. Victoria Police said a second man,

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<v Speaker 2>a 31-year-old from Carlton, voluntarily attended a police station where

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<v Speaker 2>he was arrested. Police believe he is known to Allen

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<v Speaker 2>Bonner and he was expected to be interviewed by Homosquad

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<v Speaker 2>detectives on Tuesday night. Thousands of people, including many Aboriginal Australians,

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<v Speaker 2>have been disenfranchised by recent voting changes in Queensland. The

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<v Speaker 2>changes strip voting rights off anyone sentenced to more than

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<v Speaker 2>a year behind bars, meaning that 2,500 people can no

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<v Speaker 2>longer cast ballots in the state. Legal groups and civil

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<v Speaker 2>society organisations are at odds with the government as to

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<v Speaker 2>whether it breaches the state's Human Rights Act. Attorney-General Deb

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<v Speaker 2>Frecklington has argued it increases respect for the rule of

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<v Speaker 2>law and The Queensland Prisoners Legal Service says it means

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<v Speaker 2>for the first time more than half of Queensland's prisoners

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<v Speaker 2>will be ineligible to vote. The change means that a

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<v Speaker 2>person convicted for unlawful assembly, carrying prohibited items in public

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<v Speaker 2>or trespass could not only lose their liberty but their

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<v Speaker 2>right to vote. Coming up, a good use for AI

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<v Speaker 2>plus why a US execution might not go ahead. Music

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<v Speaker 2>Football Australia is closely monitoring the fallout from airstrikes on

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<v Speaker 2>Riyadh's international airport as doubt grows over whether next January's

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<v Speaker 2>Asian Cup will still take place in Saudi Arabia. Multiple

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<v Speaker 2>attacks on King Khalid International Airport by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi

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<v Speaker 2>rebels over the weekend killed at least 14 people and

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<v Speaker 2>wounded more than 300, according to Saudi officials. The Asian

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<v Speaker 2>Football Cup is due to kick off on January 7.

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<v Speaker 2>A Football Australia spokesperson said they are closely monitoring the

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<v Speaker 2>situation and that the safety and wellbeing of players, staff

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<v Speaker 2>and supporters was paramount. And rangers in West Arnhem have

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<v Speaker 2>teamed up with Charles Darwin University and CSIRO to bring

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<v Speaker 2>AI into their camera trap wildlife monitoring after an extensive

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<v Speaker 2>consultation with elders on how to use it the right

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<v Speaker 2>way on country. The AI tool Megadetector cut the images

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<v Speaker 2>needing review by 81%. shrinking processing time from six months

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<v Speaker 2>to two. Rangers can then put the time they save

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<v Speaker 2>into species identification, language documentation and creating newsletters, videos and

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<v Speaker 2>workshops to share their knowledge with the younger generations. Researcher

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<v Speaker 2>Dr Cara Penton says people are still part of the process.

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<v Speaker 2>Two ends of the political spectrum. The Greens leader, David Shoebridge.

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<v Speaker 2>That is obscene. That online violence produces real violence. And

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<v Speaker 2>in this case, they're proposing to live.

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<v Speaker 1>Stream real violence.

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<v Speaker 2>And One Nation's Barnaby Joyce.

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<v Speaker 1>This is Roman amphitheatre stuff. No, I don't agree with that.

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<v Speaker 2>They usually agree on very little. But this week, they

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<v Speaker 2>were on a unity ticket.

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<v Speaker 1>The Pentagon says the execution of the 2009 Fort Hood

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<v Speaker 1>shooter will be publicly live streamed.

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<v Speaker 2>Last week, the U.S. government announced that Nidal Hassan would

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<v Speaker 2>be killed by firing squad scheduled for early December. Hassan

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<v Speaker 2>was a former military army major and physician who was

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<v Speaker 2>found guilty of killing 13 people and injuring a further

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<v Speaker 2>32 on a military base in 2009. United States Secretary

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<v Speaker 2>of War Pete Hegseth has been spruiking the decision. An

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<v Speaker 2>army major betrays his country, radical Islamist, kills a bunch

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<v Speaker 2>of Americans at Fort Hood. Of course we're going to

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<v Speaker 2>do it at Fort Hood. We're going to do it

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<v Speaker 2>on a Thursday. We're going to do it at one o'clock,

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<v Speaker 2>which is when he did it. And it's going to

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<v Speaker 2>be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad. The U.S.

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<v Speaker 2>military has not carried out a death penalty since 1961.

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<v Speaker 2>This would be the first execution by a military firing

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<v Speaker 2>squad since World War II. People were shocked when the

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<v Speaker 2>decision to kill Hassan in this manner was announced. We'll

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<v Speaker 2>make sure that people are able to watch it, that

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<v Speaker 2>it's public. And then many people around the world were

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<v Speaker 2>outraged that this would be streamed for all to see.

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<v Speaker 2>And there's pressure on our government to stop it being

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<v Speaker 2>accessible to us here in Australia. Labor Cabinet Minister Murray

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<v Speaker 2>Watt said the idea of public streaming a firing squad

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<v Speaker 2>execution was absolutely disgusting. But it's unclear just how much

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<v Speaker 2>we can do from here in Australia to stop this

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<v Speaker 2>from being made available on social media platforms. The eSafety

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<v Speaker 2>Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant has said she's got no power herself

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<v Speaker 2>to stop the stream, but called on the platforms themselves

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<v Speaker 2>to stop it. In Australia, the death penalty doesn't exist anymore.

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<v Speaker 1>So the last execution in Australia was in Victoria with

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<v Speaker 1>Ronald Ryan in 1967. So next February is the 60th

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<v Speaker 1>year since that execution. And after that, there were no

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<v Speaker 1>further executions in Australia. We didn't formally abolish it. The

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<v Speaker 1>last state to end it was in the 80s.

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<v Speaker 2>That's Sarah Cavall. She's the vice president of the Capital

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<v Speaker 2>Punishment Justice Project, which is an Australian NGO focused on

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<v Speaker 2>abolishing the death penalty. She was originally a criminal lawyer

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<v Speaker 2>and now she advocates and does research into capital punishment.

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<v Speaker 1>In 2010, we passed fantastic Commonwealth legislation that said not

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<v Speaker 1>only is it totally abolished, but we're also not going

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<v Speaker 1>to reintroduce it. So it's totally in line with our

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<v Speaker 1>international law obligations with the ICCPR, and we are one

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<v Speaker 1>of the leading abolitionist countries.

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<v Speaker 2>While Australia is very much against the death penalty, many

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<v Speaker 2>of our neighbours are not.

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<v Speaker 1>In the Asia-Pacific region, the biggest execution globally is China,

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<v Speaker 1>followed by North Korea and Vietnam, but there's not data

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<v Speaker 1>on those numbers of executions, so often it goes under

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<v Speaker 1>the radar. The stubborn offender is Singapore. Singapore's executed 19

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<v Speaker 1>people this year, all for drug offences. Singapore's one of

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<v Speaker 1>a handful of countries that actively executes for drug offences

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<v Speaker 1>and it has the mandatory death penalty.

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<v Speaker 2>But the global leader in this is Iran.

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<v Speaker 1>The country that's kind of on the leaderboard of executions

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<v Speaker 1>globally at the moment where we do have data is Iran,

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<v Speaker 1>which is responsible for about 80% of the global executions

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<v Speaker 1>last year.

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<v Speaker 2>Iran is an authoritarian regime. The country is widely criticised

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<v Speaker 2>for repressing dissent and human rights. While most of its

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<v Speaker 2>executions take place inside prisons, some are carried out in

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<v Speaker 2>public and sometimes in front of crowds.

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<v Speaker 1>The global trend is really towards abolition of the death penalty.

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<v Speaker 1>145 countries, so almost two thirds of countries are saying

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<v Speaker 1>that we abolish the death penalty. So these retentionist countries,

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<v Speaker 1>it's only 17 countries actively executing people, and the US

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<v Speaker 1>is one of those.

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<v Speaker 2>Kaval says the countries that are holding on to the

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<v Speaker 2>death penalty are doing so tightly.

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<v Speaker 1>The countries that are retaining it tend to be really

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<v Speaker 1>locking down and getting more and more entrenched in it,

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<v Speaker 1>which is what I think we're seeing from the US.

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<v Speaker 2>Just two weeks ago, the US state of Tennessee attempted

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<v Speaker 2>to put to death Krista Pike for her role in

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<v Speaker 2>the murder and torture of Colleen Slemmer in 1995. But

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<v Speaker 2>that execution, by two doses of lethal injection, went wrong.

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<v Speaker 2>Pike was rushed to hospital where she later woke up,

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<v Speaker 2>and she's since been returned to prison. The saga didn't

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<v Speaker 2>surprise Kaval, who says that's not unheard of.

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<v Speaker 1>It's all dressed up like it's a medical procedure because

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<v Speaker 1>that makes people feel better about it. But it's not

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<v Speaker 1>in a hospital. It's not administered by people who know

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<v Speaker 1>how to administer drugs, and that's exactly why you have

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<v Speaker 1>results like Krista Pike experienced. Doctors in America who have

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<v Speaker 1>to take the Hippocratic Oath where they say that they

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<v Speaker 1>agree to do whatever they do to save people's lives,

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<v Speaker 1>this is the opposite.

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<v Speaker 2>So these injections are often left to poorly trained prison staff.

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<v Speaker 2>She says the whole system is deeply opaque. And she

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<v Speaker 2>says the idea now being proposed by the US government

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<v Speaker 2>to live stream an execution is designed to create fear

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<v Speaker 2>and sensation.

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<v Speaker 1>It sensationalizes real trauma. Even thinking about it is quite

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<v Speaker 1>distressing and the idea of needing to protect children from

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<v Speaker 1>seeing this and all that kind of stuff, it really

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<v Speaker 1>creates a whole lot of fear and is done to

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<v Speaker 1>really sensationalise State's ancient killing.

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<v Speaker 2>Despite all the attention this case is getting, Kaval actually

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<v Speaker 2>doubts it'll go ahead. She says there are still many

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<v Speaker 2>appeal avenues available to Hassan and his defence team.

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<v Speaker 1>Pete Hegsgarth knows that the man who's the subject of

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<v Speaker 1>this said proposed live execution... has other avenues of appeal

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<v Speaker 1>still open to him. So the realistic chances of him

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<v Speaker 1>actually being executed on the 3rd of December are low.

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<v Speaker 2>She says it sounds like an authoritarian plan.

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<v Speaker 1>Which makes me think that the US government is taking

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<v Speaker 1>this stance to get us all riled up, make us

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<v Speaker 1>all fearful. And it's also got authoritarian tones to it.

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<v Speaker 1>We see public executions in Iran and Afghanistan and And

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<v Speaker 1>it's talked about also in North Korea. Those are the

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<v Speaker 1>types of governments that use this in their playbook to

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<v Speaker 1>really silence dissent and make people feel fear. And you've

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<v Speaker 1>got to wonder why the US is going down this

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<v Speaker 1>path as well.

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<v Speaker 2>And the US President Donald Trump insists the final word

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<v Speaker 2>sits with him.

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<v Speaker 1>There are two thoughts.

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<v Speaker 2>Don't show it and show it.

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<v Speaker 1>Because, you know, by showing it, maybe other people won't

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<v Speaker 1>be doing what he did.

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<v Speaker 2>So I'll make a decision ultimately.

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<v Speaker 1>I know what the military would like to do, but

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<v Speaker 1>we'll make a decision.

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<v Speaker 2>That's all for now. If you have a topic you'd

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<v Speaker 2>like us to discuss, our inbox is always open. We're

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<v Speaker 2>at thequickie at mamamia.com.au. And make sure to rate and

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<v Speaker 1>Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on

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<v Speaker 1>which we have recorded this podcast.