Su’ud Rusli’s Constitutional Court Challenge: Overhauling Clemency in Indonesian Death Penalty Cases?

Abstract

Since the formation of the modern Indonesian state in 1945, the Indonesian president has always possessed the constitutional power to grant clemency. This article provides an overview of the provisions of, and rationales for, Indonesia’s clemency regulation, including the most recent Clemency Law passed in 2002, and its amending legislation in 2010. The article then outlines the Indonesian Constitutional Court’s ruling in the Rusli decision (107/PUU-XII/2015 (15 June 2016)), which found the one-year deadline for applying for clemency set out in the 2010 amending legislation to be unconstitutional. It argues that the Rusli decision has significantly expanded the availability of clemency to death row prisoners in Indonesia. Only through deliberate waiver, rather than through artificial timelines, should prisoners now be lawfully excluded from the right to apply for mercy from the Indonesian president.