There's nothing quite like a freshly roasted cup of coffee while reading about women sentenced to death by stoning to give you an early morning jolt. Two Sudanese women were given this awful sentence after an Al Gezira court found them guilty of adultery, reports Reuters.

The women, Sadia Idriss Fadul and Amouna Abdallah Daldoum, were given a trial, but only by name. The proceedings were conducted in Arabic -- not their first language -- and they weren't granted lawyers. According to Amnesty International, "The women had no lawyer during their trial and were not able to defend themselves, as their first languages are those of their ethnic groups." Oh, but there's more: The man accused in Fadul's trial was released because "there wasn't enough evidence against him," reports Reuters. Yet, curiously, there was enough to sentence her to death.

Now the women could be stoned to death at any time, reports Reuters. I'm going to take an uncharacteristic pause for optimism, though: Consider that Amnesty International is strongly campaigning against the ruling and that a past human rights campaign succeeded in reducing a similar ruling to a public lashing.

How odd when optimism means hoping for something so abysmal.