Robert Smith, who was sentenced to death for stabbing a fellow inmate, is to be executed in Indiana on 29 January 1998. He is refusing to continue with the legal appeals and has consented to his execution. His lawyers, acting without his consent, appealed to the Indiana Supreme Court arguing that Smith had seeked a death sentence because of depression resulting from being held in solitary confinement. However, the court upheld Smith’s death sentence on the grounds that it was Smith’s own choice. AI is concerned at the precedent of state-assisted suicide that Smith’s execution would set and asks for clemency.
