I actually thought that would be the best possibel way out of
this:
Since you cant retrospectively apply laws (or should not), it's
impossible to get around the legal obstacle of the mandatory death
penalty.
The Presidential Pardon would have been a way around this, followed
by a debate on the subject in Parliament, specifically with a view
to determining whether the mandatory penalty should be refined to
mandatory for drug cartel bosses and lieutenants, and the option of
life imprisonment for mules.
Sadly, no thought seems to have been given to the possibility of
this by our government in the last weeks. After all, if there is a
strong public view, it should be taken into account. We do live in
a democracy, where the views of the people should count. Or did I
not read the fine print...?