Wilcox and Flannaghan are receiving consular assistance
A Briton has been sentenced to death and another to 33 years in prison in Thailand over drugs charges.
Anthony Flannaghan, 33, of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, was convicted of possession of drugs with intent to sell and given the death penalty.
Stephen Wilcox, 39, of Blaby, Leicester, had his life term for possession reduced after a guilty plea.
Flannaghan had denied the charges, involving heroin, ecstasy, and amphetamine, and is planning to appeal.
Police allege that, at a raid at the home of Wilcox, who worked in real estate and lived on the island of Koh Samui, they discovered 1.2 ounces of heroin, one ounce of marijuana, 14 ecstasy tablets and 11 tablets of methamphetamines.
Flannaghan was arrested in Bangkok and police allege he had been paid £350 by Wilcox to travel to the capital from Koh Samui with 2.9 pounds of heroin hidden in his luggage.
It is understood that Wilcox has lived in Thailand for two years and has a pregnant wife in the country.
Reasonable health
Both men, appearing in brown and orange prison uniform, had their ankles shackled and were handcuffed as they appeared in court.
It is believed both men have 30 days to appeal.
A spokeswoman for the UK Foreign Office said the Thai government would be aware that the British government opposes the death penalty, and indicated that a representation would be made to them at some point in an effort to get the sentence commuted.
Both men are receiving consular assistance and are believed to be in reasonable health, the spokeswoman added.
Good. There is one less fuckwit feeding his poisons on the streets of Britain. I really hope they don't get their sentences reduced because that are British, which is really no reason at all.
I don't particularly support the death penalty, I think that a dead man can't learn from his mistakes, but there are some people, like these, who just won't change.
On a gathering storm comes
a tall handsome man
in a dusty black coat with
a red right hand.
Too bad they stopped using belt fed machine guns to execute the condemned in thailand.
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
"Would you support the death penalty in this case?"
The guy was a drug dealer. The article doesn't say anything about him killing anyone else. I don't think the death penalty is suitable in this case. (no I don't like drug dealing, but taking someone's life because he's guilty of it doesn't strike me as the punishment fitting the crime. Now, if he was responsible for murdering someone then I'd talk about the death penalty...)
This is like idots trying to smuggle heroin or angel dust through Turkish customs
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
He's a dope-smuggler, not a serial killer. Let's go kick Thailand's ass and rescue him.
If Religion and Politics were characters on a soap opera, Religion would be the one that goes insane with jealousy over Politics' intimate relationship with Reality, and secretly murder Politics in the night, skin the corpse, and run around its apartment wearing the skin like a cape shouting "My votes now! All votes for me! Wheeee!" -- Lagmonster
Stofsk wrote:"Would you support the death penalty in this case?"
The guy was a drug dealer. The article doesn't say anything about him killing anyone else. I don't think the death penalty is suitable in this case. (no I don't like drug dealing, but taking someone's life because he's guilty of it doesn't strike me as the punishment fitting the crime. Now, if he was responsible for murdering someone then I'd talk about the death penalty...)
I think that the overall unhappiness generated by his offence would be greater than the overall unhappiness generated by him just killing someone. Also, his motives for doing what he does are evil.
And who’s to say his actions haven't killed anyone? Heroin can contain lethal substance, people can OD.
On a gathering storm comes
a tall handsome man
in a dusty black coat with
a red right hand.
Joy Division wrote:I think that the overall unhappiness generated by his offence would be greater than the overall unhappiness generated by him just killing someone. Also, his motives for doing what he does are evil.
I never said he should get off lightly. But the death penalty is a permanent punishment, and I would only support it for the most atrocious of offences. Murder falls under that one quite quickly.
And who’s to say his actions haven't killed anyone? Heroin can contain lethal substance, people can OD.
And if he was responsible for that, then the death penalty becomes slightly more reasonable. I repeat: he shouldn't get off lightly, but if he's killed someone then that is a different crime from drug dealing. If he hasn't killed anybody - directly or indirectly - then the death penalty is a little too excessive.
I do like the idea of letting drug-pushers know they can be killed too, but drug-dealing is not a crime worthy of death.
BoTM / JL / MM / HAB / VRWC / Horseman
I'm studying for the CPA exam. Have a nice summer, and if you're down just sit back and realize that Joe is off somewhere, doing much worse than you are.
well, it is common knowledge that drug smuggling is punishable by Death in Thailand (as well as Singapore and Malaysia) so if you go ahead and break the law anyway, you deserve the penalty simply for being audacious/stupid enough to do it...
Does Thailand have jurisdiction over a foreigner in their country?
And no, I have no qualms about frying the bastard.
{} Thrawn wins. Any questions? {} Great Dolphin Conspiracy {} Proud member of the defunct SEGNOR {} Enjoy the rythmic hip thrusts {} In my past life I was either Vlad the Impaler or Katsushika Hokusai {}
StormtrooperOfDeath wrote:Does Thailand have jurisdiction over a foreigner in their country?
Every country has jurisdiction over foreign citizens in their own land. Why do you think a guy from Jordan can't come here and kill his daughter-in-law for not being a virgin on her wedding night?
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
StormtrooperOfDeath wrote:Does Thailand have jurisdiction over a foreigner in their country?
Every country has jurisdiction over foreign citizens in their own land. Why do you think a guy from Jordan can't come here and kill his daughter-in-law for not being a virgin on her wedding night?
Sorry, I didn't make that clear. I thought they had to deport them back for the original country to sentence them. Or am I just watching too many movies?
{} Thrawn wins. Any questions? {} Great Dolphin Conspiracy {} Proud member of the defunct SEGNOR {} Enjoy the rythmic hip thrusts {} In my past life I was either Vlad the Impaler or Katsushika Hokusai {}
StormtrooperOfDeath wrote:
Sorry, I didn't make that clear. I thought they had to deport them back for the original country to sentence them. Or am I just watching too many movies?
You are . You commit a crime in a foreign country, that countries laws apply.
You're maybe thinking of somebody being deported back to the country he commited the crime in.
And not only am I against the death penalty on principle, the guy didn't kill anybody, he merely sold drugs.
'Next time I let Superman take charge, just hit me. Real hard.'
'You're a princess from a society of immortal warriors. I'm a rich kid with issues. Lots of issues.'
'No. No dating for the Batman. It might cut into your brooding time.'
'Tactically we have multiple objectives. So we need to split into teams.'-'Dibs on the Amazon!'
'Hey, we both have a Martian's phone number on our speed dial. I think I deserve the benefit of the doubt.'
'You know, for a guy with like 50 different kinds of vision, you sure are blind.'
StormtrooperOfDeath wrote:
Sorry, I didn't make that clear. I thought they had to deport them back for the original country to sentence them. Or am I just watching too many movies?
You are . You commit a crime in a foreign country, that countries laws apply.
You're maybe thinking of somebody being deported back to the country he commited the crime in.
And not only am I against the death penalty on principle, the guy didn't kill anybody, he merely sold drugs.
Which depending on the drug, can kill people. The man is a parasite.
Hell I would help execute those fucking drugrunners!
I hate everylast one of those that sells drus
[img=right]http://hem.bredband.net/b217293/warsaban.gif[/img] "Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to. ... If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. ... If, as they say, God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?" -Epicurus
Fear is the mother of all gods.
Nature does all things spontaneously, by herself, without the meddling of the gods. -Lucretius
Kamakazie Sith wrote:
Which depending on the drug, can kill people.
So can fastfood. It merely takes longer. He sold recreative chemicals to people who wanted to take them despite knowing the risk of doing so. If they die in the process it's their fault, not his.
The man is a parasite.
For selling drugs to people stupid enough to take them despite their well-nown
hazardousness? Hardly.
The man is an idiot for trying it in Thailand, nothing more.
'Next time I let Superman take charge, just hit me. Real hard.'
'You're a princess from a society of immortal warriors. I'm a rich kid with issues. Lots of issues.'
'No. No dating for the Batman. It might cut into your brooding time.'
'Tactically we have multiple objectives. So we need to split into teams.'-'Dibs on the Amazon!'
'Hey, we both have a Martian's phone number on our speed dial. I think I deserve the benefit of the doubt.'
'You know, for a guy with like 50 different kinds of vision, you sure are blind.'
Stofsk wrote:
I never said he should get off lightly. But the death penalty is a permanent punishment, and I would only support it for the most atrocious of offences. Murder falls under that one quite quickly.
I didn't say he should get off lightly either. What I’m getting at is how do you determine whether an offence is atrocious enough to warrant the death penalty. By my code of ethics, drug dealing is on par with murder in terms of harm to others and motives behind the actions.
And if he was responsible for that, then the death penalty becomes slightly more reasonable. I repeat: he shouldn't get off lightly, but if he's killed someone then that is a different crime from drug dealing. If he hasn't killed anybody - directly or indirectly - then the death penalty is a little too excessive.
I'm speculating, but I think it's a sound assumption that he is a career criminal so he probably is responsible for, directly or indirectly, innocent deaths.
With that in mind, I put the question to you again - would you support the death penalty in this case?
[/quote]
On a gathering storm comes
a tall handsome man
in a dusty black coat with
a red right hand.
For selling drugs to people stupid enough to take them despite their well-nown hazardousness
Yes the 12 year olds that are the local dealers main target are truely well informed and ready to make such choices. We don't know who he was selling to so we can't say that they know jackshit.
I want more information before I vote here. Was he selling to minors? A member of a organized group of dealers?
Or just an idiot who thought it be cool to have herion at the next big party he's throwing?
Joy Division wrote:
I didn't say he should get off lightly either. What I’m getting at is how do you determine whether an offence is atrocious enough to warrant the death penalty. By my code of ethics, drug dealing is on par with murder in terms of harm to others and motives behind the actions.
so i suppose someone selling marijuana, which is a relatively harmless drug to use, would get the exact same capital punishment as someone selling crystal meth under your system? that's a bit sketchy at best.
And if he was responsible for that, then the death penalty becomes slightly more reasonable. I repeat: he shouldn't get off lightly, but if he's killed someone then that is a different crime from drug dealing. If he hasn't killed anybody - directly or indirectly - then the death penalty is a little too excessive.
all he's doing is making the drug available. if a gunstore owner sells someone on the street a gun and they commit suicide with it, are you going to hold the gunstore owner responsible for their idiocy? this is why drugs should be regulated as opposed to outlawed. then there would be far greater quality control involved and the ones that are sold are going to have a greater control over the age group they get distributed to.
I'm speculating, but I think it's a sound assumption that he is a career criminal so he probably is responsible for, directly or indirectly, innocent deaths.
see above
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
Joy Division wrote:
By my code of ethics, drug dealing is on par with murder in terms of harm to others and motives behind the actions.
Then your code of ethics sucks. The motivation behind murder it the ending of another human life, and if succesful inevitably results in such.
The motivation behind selling drugs is (usually) to make money off people who willingly buy them. While this DOES result in the death of consumers not only is it not the drug dealer's job to care more for his customer's life than they do, it is by far not inevitable.
I'm speculating, but I think it's a sound assumption that he is a career criminal so he probably is responsible for, directly or indirectly, innocent deaths.
How can he be responsible for the deaths of people who PAY him to give them a substance that is likely to kill them?
If I get roaring drunk, drive and wrap my car around a tree at 150mph is my death the fault of the liquor store?
'Next time I let Superman take charge, just hit me. Real hard.'
'You're a princess from a society of immortal warriors. I'm a rich kid with issues. Lots of issues.'
'No. No dating for the Batman. It might cut into your brooding time.'
'Tactically we have multiple objectives. So we need to split into teams.'-'Dibs on the Amazon!'
'Hey, we both have a Martian's phone number on our speed dial. I think I deserve the benefit of the doubt.'
'You know, for a guy with like 50 different kinds of vision, you sure are blind.'