This is an ethical matter and extends beyond the cliché of making the punishment fit the crime.

Sometimes when we read or hear the verdicts handed down in the courts for various offences, we also hear dissatisfaction about leniency or about punishment fitting the crime.

The question hanging in the atmosphere is - can any crime warrant the cold blooded execution of another human being?

These two young men have been living under the sword of Damocles for 10 years. 

My imagination boggles at the very thought of getting up each morning without knowing if today I will be executed.

Instead of letting this question destroy their mental, physical and emotional well-being, Chan and Sukumaran amazingly chose to turn their lives around, to rehabilitate themselves and their fellow prisoners, and to leave an indelible legacy of redeemed humanity inside the prison walls of Kerobokan. 

If imprisonment can be used as an opportunity to rehabilitate, with appropriate opportunities in place to make this happen, then the prospect of execution would be neither needful nor desirable.

After all, what is a human life worth?  No one is an island.

Whatever any individual does has implications for family and the wider community. 

Human life is sacred and should never be allowed to be extinguished arbitrarily, even as a punishment for crimes.

Recently, a chaplain has gone public about the gruelling length of time it took for an execution actually to conclude, and a second occasion when he was refused his right of access to the condemned on the way to the chamber. Humanity seems to be losing the plot.

We can only hope and pray that all the people concerned with the death penalty might take another look.