A British gran currently on Death Row once revealed her final wish to a fellow inmate.

Lindsay Sandiford, 67, has spent over 10 years behind bars in an Indonesian prison, after she was caught attempting to smuggle £1.6 million of cocaine into Bali from Bangkok.

SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP via Getty Images

Sandiford was found guilty of the crime back in 2012, and was sentenced to death by firing squad a few months later.

But the Brit is still behind bars at Kerobokan prison – known as one of the toughest jails in the world – after a decade of being in limbo.

This is because Indonesia doesn’t regularly carry out executions. In fact, the last time the death penalty was carried out was in 2016.

The gran, who is from Cheltenham, now reportedly spends her time knitting items in her cell, which she sells to raise legal funds.

According to one inmate, Sandiford once revealed her final wish.

While behind bars, Sandiford apparently got friendly with Heather Mack, who was serving a 10 year sentence for killing her mother.

Mack claimed that Sandiford struggled while locked up and became increasingly withdrawn.

“She spends all day pretty much alone in her cell and doesn’t mix so much with the other prisoners,” she said.

The American killer, who ultimately served seven years, revealed what Sandiford’s final wish was: “She has said she wants to die.”

Sandiford apparently said: “It won’t be a hard thing for me to face anymore.

“It’s not particularly a death I would choose but then again I wouldn’t choose dying in agony from cancer either.”

The gran is currently serving time in Kerobokan prison, which was built in 1979 to hold 320 prisoners.

Despite this, as of 2017, almost 1,300 inmates were resident at the jail and the issue of overcrowding remains even after a newly built facility was launched in 2018.

SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP via Getty Images

Sandiford was arrested in 2012 after the huge amount of cocaine was found in her luggage.

She insisted that she had been forced to carry the drugs by a gang who had threatened to hurt her family.

Meanwhile, her lawyers also argued she was suffering from mental health problems.

Speaking to the court during her trial, Sandiford expressed regret over her involvement, stating: “I would like to begin by apologising to the Republic of Indonesia and the Indonesian people for my involvement.

“I would never have become involved in something like this but the lives of my children were in danger and I felt I had to protect them.”

A man who spent almost 20 years on death row in Texas has been declared innocent, with a judge calling his case ‘riddled with allegations of State misconduct’.

Nearly 47 years ago, Kerry Max Cook, 68, was accused of murdering Linda Jo Edwards, then 21, in 1978.

Edward was found brutally murdered and mutilated in her bedroom in an apartment complex in Tyler, Texas, USA back in 1977, and Cook lived in the same complex.

A set of fingerprints on Edwards’ sliding patio door at her home were claimed to have matched Cook’s, with star witness at the first trial in 1978, Edward Scott Jackson, testifying that Cook told him that he’d murdered Edwards.

Kerry Max Cook has been the suspect in a 50-year long case (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for CBGB)

Cook had his conviction overturned in 1991, with his second trial ending in mistrial a year alter, while a third in 1994 ended with a new conviction and death sentence.

But on this rollercoaster of a journey, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found that that Cook’s due process had been violated, again overturning his conviction in 1996.

Prior to a fourth trial in 1999, Cook agreed to take a ‘no contest’ plea deal, where he would be sentenced to 20 years behind bars but was freed after time served, however, his conviction would remain.

That same year, DNA testing on Edwards’ underwear didn’t match Cook.

Jackson later went back on his claims, saying that he lied in exchange for a reduced sentence, as per CNN.

The claim about the fingerprints was also later debunked after scientific analysis and an expert testimony.

Cook was on death row for 20 years (Tyler Police Department)

A sergeant that was said to be a fingerprinting expert revealed that he was pressured by the District Attorney’s office to say that the fingerprints were fresh, report the Death Penalty Information Center.

It was also found that police destroyed human hair, which would have given Cook substantial evidence that would have helped in his case.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found Cook to be ‘actually innocent’, with a

member of Court, Justice Bert Richardson, saying on Wednesday (19 June) that these actions as ‘beyond gross negligence’ that goes ‘into the realm of the intentional deception against the tribunal’.

In August 2016, the trial court recommended Cook to be granted relief based on the false testimony, but that the new evidence did not prove his innocence – though Judge Richardson decided on Wednesday (19 June) that he disagreed.

He stated that in the court’s opinion, the case was ‘riddled with allegations of State misconduct that warrant setting aside Applicant’s conviction’.

His case was deemed to be ‘riddled with allegations’ (Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)

He added: “And when it comes to solid support for actual innocence, this case contains it all – uncontroverted Brady violations, proof of fake testimony, admissions of perjury and new scientific evidence.

“The State merely has to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt – which the State could never achieve in this case.

“Cook should therefore not have to prove his innocence beyond all doubt.

“After being incarcerated on death row for almost 20 torturous years, we hold that Cook has met the burden required for actual innocence and relief is hereby granted.”

Cook’s attorneys were overjoyed, through said that the situation ‘chronicles the state’s outrageous and unrelenting misconduct.’

The appeals court said that it did not hold the current prosecutors ‘in any way responsible for the past events in this case’.

A death row inmate let out some desperate final words before his execution this week.

Ivan Cantu had been on death row for over 20 years for shooting and killing his cousin James Mosqueda and his partner Amy Kitchen in November 2000.

The 50-year-old has continually proclaimed his innocence, even managing to get celebrities such as Kim Kardashian to plead his case.

He was convicted of murder in 2001, as prosecutors argued that Mosqueda, who was an illegal drug dealer, was killed along with Kitchen, who was a nursing student, as Cantu broke into their home in an attempt to steal weed, cocaine and money from their home in Dallas, Texas.

However, Cantu said that a rival drug dealer was the real criminal, murdering his cousin in a fight over money.

His case had the backing of stars like actor Martin Sheen, politicians such as Rep Joaquin Castro and former US Housing Secretary Julian Castro, and religious leaders – who called on authorities to delay Cantu’s execution to allow time for new evidence to be examined. Ultimately, those requests were unsuccessful.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Prior to Cantu receiving the lethal injection on Wednesday 28 February in Huntsville, Texas, he took the opportunity to say his final words.

Speaking to friends and relatives, he said: “I want you to know that I never killed James and Amy, and if I did, if I knew who did, you would’ve been the first to know any information.

“If it does, if this is what it takes or have any reservations off in your mind, then so be it.” Cantu concluded.

Leading up to his execution, he claimed that his conviction was based on shaky evidence and false testimony.

Cantu had no witnesses of his own, according to a spokesperson, instead only having three journalists, Kitchen’s brother, sister-in-law and a family friend witness his death.

Holding his spiritual adviser’s hand while in the death chamber as she prayed for him.

He also reiterated that he was innocent, thanking his supporters and urging for it to be investigated further, stating ‘I don’t belong on this gurney’.

Ashley Killough/CNN

The sedative pentobarbital was released into his bloodstream, and Cantu began to snore and eventually gasp on his eight snore, stopping all movement and being pronounced dead at 6:47 pm.

Following the execution, Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis spoke to CNN: “My hopeful prayer is for the victims’ families, friends, and loved ones to find a long-awaited sense of peace.”

Cantu is the first inmate to be executed in Texas so far in 2024, a day after the execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech was halted after eight failed lethal injection attempts.

A death row inmate was executed yesterday (24 September), despite a prosecutor in the case and the victim’s family believing that he should live.

Marcellus Williams was convicted of the 1998 murder of Lisha Gayle, a journalist for the St Louis Post-Dispatch.

The American was put on death row as a result, and two decades later, was executed via the lethal injection, as his Imam and his son, Marcellus Williams Jr, were with him in the execution room.

After eating his final meal at 10.53am, which included chicken wings and tater tots, he was taken to be executed, with his final words being: “All praise be to Allah in every situation!!!”

Williams was executed after 20 years on death row (CNN)

Having been held behind bars in Missouri for two decades, Williams became the third execution in the state this year, and the 15th in the US.

Following Williams’ death, his attorney, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, said in a statement: “Tonight, we all bear witness to Missouri’s grotesque exercise of state power.

“Let it not be in vain. This should never happen, and we must not let it continue.”

Missouri Governor Mike Parson received over a million petitions requesting a stay of execution, according to the WEproject, who campaigned against Williams’ death.

British billionaire Richard Branson even weighed in on the situation, writing on Twitter: “Marcellus Williams was killed today by the state of Missouri for a crime he didn’t commit. It’s a shameful day for Missouri, and a shameful day for Governor Mike Parson, who failed in his duty to protect an innocent man from injustice.”

Despite backlash from the public, Parson and the state Supreme Court refused to intervene, despite the petition revealing that even the victim’s relatives wanted the sentence changed to life without parole.

Despite last-minute protests, Williams was executed anyway (Innocence Project)

Williams’ attorneys filed two last-ditch attempts with the US Supreme Court this Monday (23 September), though both were denied.

Three justices dissented from the second request in particular, as alleged new DNA evidence and claims from the prosecutor’s office suggested that he may have been innocent.

His attorneys stated that DNA evidence on the knife used in the murder was linked to an unknown male that did not match Williams, though the court rejected a hearing about this on Saturday (21 September)

St Louis County Circuit Judge Bruce Hilton said: “There is no basis for a court to find that Williams is innocent, and no court has made such a finding.

“Williams is guilty of first-degree murder, and has been sentenced to death.”

Despite a trial judge approving the prosecutor’s office notion to vacate his conviction, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey contested the decision, with the same trial judge then reversing his initial decision.

Williams was executed on Tuesday afternoon (CNN)

Williams was described as a ‘caring and loving father’ in the trial, and was given a stay of execution by former Missouri Governor Eric Greiten in 2017, as a board of inquiry was appointed to look into the case.

Governor Parson then dissolved the board and lifted the stay when he was elected last year.

The murder of Gayle was described during the trial by the prosecutors, who said that he broke into her home, heard the shower running and used a large butcher knife to stab her 43 times when she came downstairs, before stealing her laptop and purse, according to officials.

Williams’ execution was the Missouri Department of Corrections’ third attempt to put the convict to the death, as the state Supreme Court called off his initial execution in 2015 for further DNA testing.