# My first Pit: Email Petitions
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-pit-email-petitions/298939
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [April 12, 2005, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-pit-email-petitions/298939 "2005-04-12T06:47:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mza662](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mza662)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2005, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-pit-email-petitions/298939/1 "2005-04-12T06:47:40Z")
In particular, this one I’ve just received:
> [@](#):
>
> Hi Everyone
>
> This is something that could so easily happen to any one of us so unwittingly so please join the petition.
>
> Please take a moment to read and sign the following petition to help save Australian citizen Schapelle Corby from death by firing squad in Indonesia.
>
> Schapelle Corby has been detained in a Balinese prison and now awaits sentencing from a panel of judges on whether she will be committed to the death penalty, by a firing squad, for allegedly attempting to import four kilograms of cannabis into Indonesia.
>
> It is disgusting and barbaric in this day and age that a ’ death penalty by firing squad’ law exists, and that an Australian citizen should be subject to it. This law is out-dated and inhumane, and considering that convicted terrorist Abu Bakar Bashir has only been sentenced to two years and six months jail (with the prospect of appeal) for his proven conspiracy participation in the Bali bombings that killed 183 people, in the same country, it is inconsistent and absurd that another person should face the death penalty for allegedly smuggling cannabis into the country.
>
> Furthermore, the Australian Government and airlines should be taking more responsibility for this incident in any case, since it is the fault of the Australian airlines/airport that the drugs even left Australia in the first place - which also leaves us to ponder on the security and possible internal corruption of staff working at Australian airports, in light of drug smuggling and terrorism.
>
> We the undersigned demand that the Australian Government, and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, act responsibly to ensure that, innocent or guilty, Schapelle Corby is returned to Australia and that she does NOT face the ’ death penalty by firing Squad’ in Indonesia.
>
> Instructions: Please copy & paste this petition into a new email & send to all of your contact who support basic human rights & justice (remembering to number and place your name at the end of this list).
>
> If you are the 50th person on this list, please forward this email to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, at minister.downer@dfat.gov.au \<\<[mailto:minister.downer@dfat.gov.au](mailto:minister.downer@dfat.gov.au)\>\> and then clear the list of names back to number 1, place your name there and forward to all of your contacts.
>
> Thank you for your assistance in attempting to save Schapelle Corby.
Now, first off, if nobody has heard of Schapelle Corby, she is an Australian woman who was found to have several kilograms of marijuana in a boogie board bag on a flight to Bali. Questions were immediately raised as to the circumstances, as presumably only a fool would try to fly this much marijuana so loosely concealed into a country which is well known to have the death penalty as a consequence of drug smuggling.
Now to the email specifically. The first comment is that this ‘thing’ could happen to any of us easily, which it could, but never has before, ever presumably. This just seems like your typical, ‘it could happen to you’ with something that would be very rare. That annoys me already, and shows the intelligence level of people who perpetuate these types of emails.
Secondly, these comments are total crap.
> [@](#):
>
> Schapelle Corby has been detained in a Balinese prison and now awaits sentencing from a panel of judges on whether she will be committed to the death penalty, by a firing squad, for allegedly attempting to import four kilograms of cannabis into Indonesia.
She is not awaiting sentencing, she’s going through a fair trial by a fair court system in a country we have, at times, a tentative relationship with. These comments come across as if the person is trying to claim she has not been through a fair trial and is awaiting sentencing even though it is alleged she smuggled drugs. It’s not alleged, she was caught red handed with the drugs in her bag, if there are extenuating circumstances they should be proven, and they may well be, but until then there’s no evidence to show she is not a drug smuggler. A lot of people have just assumed she isn’t because Indonesia are the ‘big baddy’s with a death penalty’.
Thirdly, this sentence is a shocker.
> [@](#):
>
> It is disgusting and barbaric in this day and age that a ’ death penalty by firing squad’ law exists, and that an Australian citizen should be subject to it.
I bet whoever made the email never gave a crap about Indonesian people facing the death penalty. But now that an Australian is subject to it, how barbaric.
> [@](#):
>
> Furthermore, the Australian Government and airlines should be taking more responsibility for this incident in any case, since it is the fault of the Australian airlines/airport that the drugs even left Australia in the first place
So, everytime drugs are smuggled anywhere, airlines used to facilitate this are responsible? Gun companies are responsible for murder? This is just a stupid comment altogether.
> [@](#):
>
> We the undersigned demand that the Australian Government, and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, act responsibly to ensure that, innocent or guilty, Schapelle Corby is returned to Australia and that she does NOT face the ’ death penalty by firing Squad’ in Indonesia.
And this infuriates me. If she is found guilty by a fair trial she has to be punished by the country whose laws she has violated. We, as Australia, have no right to demand a prisoner back or subvert that country’s own passage of justice.
This whole article is rife with the attitude that Indonesia doesn’t know what it’s doing and what it does is unfair, and that’s ridiculous. And people actually sign on the end of this crap and email it to Alexander Downer. The government is already putting a lot of pressure on Indonesia and have recently had a witness from a Victorian prison testify in the court room in her defense. This email just got me in the wrong spot on the end of a bad day.
Hope my first pit was good enough 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Maxxxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maxxxie)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2005, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-pit-email-petitions/298939/2 "2005-04-12T07:30:38Z")
I’m with you on this one. “Other countries’ legal systems are barbaric… but only when they’re applied to us!”.
The problem of course, with any death penalty, is… what if the accused really didn’t do it? Yeh yeh, most of the time they’re as guilty as sin - but what if they’re one of the few who aren’t?
I wonder if any hostage… errr, I mean… prisoner exchanges have been discussed?
Max.
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### Author:  [@mza662](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mza662)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-pit-email-petitions/298939/3 "2005-04-13T01:35:12Z")
I doubt it, and nor should it. The Australian Government could assist in proving her innocence, or disproving her guilt, but shouldn’t try to circumvent Indonesia’s own judicial system just because it’s different to ours. Luckily, I think that’s the way they see it. Unfortunately, most other people don’t see it that way. I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate Indonesia claiming our judicial system was inadequate and trying to bring home one of their citizens who’d committed a crime in Australia, but these people don’t use common sense in their thinking unfortunately.
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### Author:  [@Keapon\_Laffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keapon_Laffin)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-pit-email-petitions/298939/4 "2005-04-13T03:09:35Z")
[And to make matters worse…](http://theage.com.au/news/National/Minister-reassures-Indonesia-over-Corby-threat/2005/04/13/1113251660228.html)
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### Author:  [@mza662](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mza662)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-pit-email-petitions/298939/5 "2005-04-13T08:56:31Z")
Exactly. Now, will Indonesians want the criminals who made those threats to be sent to Indonesia and be tried under their judicial system? I doubt it.
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### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-pit-email-petitions/298939/6 "2005-04-13T14:04:51Z")
Wait, so a moron tried to smuggle drugs into Indonesia, and now some other morons are mad that the first moron may face the death penalty? I think that death is a bit much for drug offenses, but hey, that’s the law there in Indonesia. You go to another country and you are subject to its laws–what’s so hard about that to understand?
“It could happen to you”? Yeah, if I’m a complete fucking drug-trafficking moron. Or the sender of a bullshit email petition.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-pit-email-petitions/298939/7 "2005-04-13T14:58:30Z")
Let’s not even get into the fact that an e-mail petition is not worth the weight of the electrons it’s printed on. Any bozo with a modicum of programming skills can write a routine to generate signatures. I’m sure the Balinese government knows this, and will give such a petition all the attention it deserves.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-pit-email-petitions/298939/8 "2005-04-13T21:57:28Z")
> [@Keapon Laffin](#):
>
> [And to make matters worse…](http://theage.com.au/news/National/Minister-reassures-Indonesia-over-Corby-threat/2005/04/13/1113251660228.html)
Dead link.
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-pit-email-petitions/298939/9 "2005-04-14T01:38:59Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#):
>
> Dead link.
Works for me. You must be referring to the brain of the moron who sent the letter with the bullets. 😉
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-pit-email-petitions/298939/10 "2005-04-14T02:29:28Z")
> [@](#):
>
> _From Keapon Laffin’s link_
> Police are investigating the threat to Indonesian consulate staff, believed to have been made in a letter which also contained two bullets.
>
> “If Schapelle Corby is not released immediately you will all receive one of these bullets through the brain,” The Australian newspaper quoted the letter as saying.
Do you think whoever sent that letter is going to ask for the bullets back before putting them through the brains of any Indonesians at the consulate, seeing as he’s mailed them to the potential victims? And what if there are more than two people working there? I don’t think this person has properly thought through his death threat.
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### Author:  [@mza662](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mza662)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-pit-email-petitions/298939/11 "2005-04-14T02:32:57Z")
Hahaha, do they ever?
In reply to asterion, whilst you are presuming her guilt before it has been conclusively proven, if she is found guilty, then yes, your comments do apply 🙂 Though if these email petition idiots let justice take it’s course, which presumably it will, then from all reports there has been doubt cast upon her guilt and most people expect her to be found guilty. However, it doesn;t help when the media insit she’s been sentenced, when really the prosecutors are requesting a sentence should she be found guilty, that’s all. People just jump to so many conclusions based on misinformation and prejudice.
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### Author:  [@stringy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stringy)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-pit-email-petitions/298939/12 "2005-04-14T09:02:07Z")
I recieved this one too. I didn’t know whether or not to point out to the friend that sent it to me that email petitions are useless.
I think the stuff about it being the airlines’ fault is because her lawyers believe the dope was put there by airline employees, not because the petitioners think that airlines should check outgoing baggage for drugs. If this is the case, then yeah, this situation could happen to anybody, but I don’t see what Downer is supposed to do about it other than give whatever assistance is requested by her legal team.
If she’s guilty after all - well, stupid her for trying to smuggle drugs through South-East Asia. It’s pretty well known that the death penalty applies in many places there, so you can’t really complain about it _after_ you’re caught.
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### Author:  [@Balle\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balle_M)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-first-pit-email-petitions/298939/13 "2005-04-14T15:24:38Z")
> [@Miller](#):
>
> Do you think whoever sent that letter is going to ask for the bullets back before putting them through the brains of any Indonesians at the consulate, seeing as he’s mailed them to the potential victims? And what if there are more than two people working there? I don’t think this person has properly thought through his death threat.
Sounds like the [Piranha Brothers](http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/piranha.htm) are at it again…
> [@](#):
>
> Presenter: At the age of fifteen Doug and Dinsdale started attending the Ernest Pythagoras Primary School in Clerkenwell. When the Piranhas left school they were called up but were found by an Army Board to be too unstable even for National Service. Denied the opportunity to use their talents in the service of their country, they began to operate what they called ‘The Operation’… They would select a victim and then threaten to beat him up if he paid the so-called protection money. Four months later they started another operation which the called ‘The Other Operation’. In this racket they selected another victim and threatened not to beat him up if he didn’t pay them. One month later they hit upon ‘The Other Other Operation’. In this the victim was threatened that if he didn’t pay them, they would beat him up. This for the Piranha brothers was the turning point.