[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

February 4



JAMAICA:

Crime, punishment and reform



I have absolutely no sympathy for anyone who goes out to commit crimes with a 
lethal weapon. Anyone who has no respect for life deserves anything that he/she 
gets. But I don’t believe in capital punishment. Even killers can be reformed.

Capital punishment has proven to be an ineffective deterrent. And, in the same 
way that criminals have no right to take a human life, neither does 
society.Killing killers only sends the message that killing is okay on some 
level. And, unless a malicious murderer is caught in the act, there is 
oftentimes doubt regarding his/her guilt.

Furthermore, in a country such as ours, no well-connected, famous, rich or 
upper-class murderer will ever face the death penalty.

Only lower-class, disenfranchised, misdirected youth will swing from the 
gallows.That said, I always avoid being judgemental or prejudicial towards 
convicts or ex-convicts. We never know what fate awaits us just around the 
corner.

No one can tell for certain if he/she might end up behind bars. A mistake, a 
lapse, an accident, a bad decision, a wrong move at the wrong time or being 
wrongly accused can land any of us in jail, and even prison. Prison should not 
only be punishment.I believe that all prisoners should be 
rehabilitated/reformed and made fit to rejoin society. Otherwise, we are only 
producing more hardened criminals. Prison should not only be punishment, it 
should be a place where people can improve themselves and come out better than 
when they went in.I also believe that, for there to be genuine reform, convicts 
should do some sort of reparation.

Some sentences require monetary compensation, but others require that fines be 
paid to the State only. Consequently, the victim(s) sometimes go away 
empty-handed and the pain and animosity continue. I believe that a convict who 
wrongs someone should be required to apologise directly to his/her victim or to 
the ones left behind.Convicts are whisked away and are usually totally 
separated from the rest of society. Of course, there are strange exceptions. 
Popular dancehall artiste Vybz Kartel continues to enjoy chart-topping hits 
while incarcerated in a maximum-security penal institution.

The women of Fort Augusta prison were able to broadcast their grouses on the 
Internet, not just once but twice.

Lax System

We are also told of criminals who continue ordering ‘hits’ (contract murders) 
from behind prison bars.lack of accountabilityWhat really bothers me about such 
failures is the absolute lack of accountability, especially to the nation. I 
have never heard of anyone directly or indirectly responsible for inmate 
security being made to answer to their superiors. If there is so much ease of 
influence from behind prison walls, which of us is safe? If some prison inmates 
can apparently carry on the important facets of their lives, where is the 
punitive aspect and reform of their incarceration? It should never be business 
as usual when one is imprisoned.As for Buju Banton.

His involvement in the conspiracy to traffic cocaine was really crazy. He knew 
darn well that hisBoom Bye Bye song earned him loads of enemies, especially in 
North America.

That’s the very last place that he should break any rules. And, cocaine is 
frowned upon by the vast majority of Jamaicans. If he had transgressed by 
conspiring to traffic ganja, it would be wrong, but more in keeping with his 
cultural circumstance.Anyway, he did his time, and we understand that he 
furthered his education.

He has been welcomed home with wide open arms and overt adulation. I think it’s 
excessive but, more importantly, if Mr Myrie is truly reformed, he should help 
others by speaking out against the use of hard drugs and against the 
indiscriminate use of ganja. I’m certain that many would benefit from it.

(source: Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice----Jamaica 
Gleaner)








INDIA:

1st rapist to be hanged till death under child rape law on March 2



A district court in Madhya Pradesh issued a death warrant against a school 
teacher who was convicted of raping his four-year-old student. The criminal, 
Mahendra Singh Gond, will be hanged till death in Jabalpur jail on March 2. 
This would be the 1st execution under the new law of death penalty for child 
rapists.

Gond had kidnapped and raped the girl on June 30 last year. The gruesome crime 
that shook the nation prompted the police to act quickly. Gond was arrested 
within a few hours. Gond had dumped the child in the jungle assuming that she 
was dead. After the girl's family found her, she was rushed to a hospital. The 
girl was violated so brutally that the state government decided to airlift her 
to Delhi so that she could be traded at AIIMS. The minor girl underwent several 
injuries to get her intestines realigned.

The survivor's statement which was recorded through video conferencing was 
crucial in proving the school teacher guilty. A sessions court in Nagod 
sentenced Gond to capital punishment on September 19 last year. Considering the 
crime to be “rarest of rare", a division bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court 
confirmed the death penalty on January 25. The HC noted that the capital 
punishment was important as the crime was committed by a teacher.

Superintendent of Jabalpur Central Jail, Gopal Tamrakr, while speaking to The 
Times of India, said that they received an email from Satna court which said 
that Gond would be executed at 5 am on March 2. However, he added that the 
hanging can still be stopped by the Supreme Court or the President.

(source: timesnownews.com)








AUSTRALIA:

50 years on: Ronald Ryan was the last man executed in Australia



Ronald Ryan, the last person hanged in Australia, was executed 50 years ago on 
February 3, 1967.

His death sentence was handed down after he was found guilty of shooting and 
killing warder George Hodson during an escape from Melbourne's Pentridge Prison 
in 1965.

First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on February 3, 1967

A last-minute bid to save Ronald Ryan from the gallows failed in Melbourne late 
last night.

He is due to hang in Pentridge Gaol at 8 o'clock this morning for the murder of 
warder George Henry Hodson at the time of his escape from the gaol on December 
19, 1965.

A special sitting of the Executive Council rejected Ryan's final plea for mercy 
at 10 p.m.

In a dramatic late move the Governor, Sir Rohan Delacombe, interrupted a 
holiday at Sorrento to drive 60 miles to the council meeting at Government 
House.

The petition for mercy was submitted by Ryan's solicitor, Mr Ralph Freadman.

Asked if he had any further avenues of appeal, Mr Freadman said: "Not really, 
but if anything more turns up we would act on it."

The struggle to save Ryan was waged all day yesterday through an amazing series 
of incidents which saw:

• Cabinet meet at 8.30 a.m. and decide after 45 minutes that Ryan should hang.

Not for years has Victoria been in such a turmoil of protest marches, violence, 
speeches, accusations, Court appeals and thundering newspaper editorials, 
splitting the community" into bitterly divided groups.

• A 20-minute Executive Council meeting follow immediately and approve 
Cabinet's decision.

• Former Pentridge inmate Allan John Cane fly to Melbourne from Brisbane late 
last night in a vain attempt to see the Premier, Sir Henry Bolte, or the 
Attorney-General, Mr A. G. Rylah.

'Hopeless'

Less than 3 hours after returning from London yesterday, Mr Philip Opas, Q.C., 
went before Mr Justice Starke in the Supreme Court to ask for a stay of 
execution to allow examination of new evidence.

However, Mr Justice Starke, the trial Judge, in refusing the application, said 
it seemed "entirely hopeless and misconceived."

On hearing the Council's final decision, Mr Opas said: "There is no hope now 
... no other avenue open.

"I can't understand it. Here is a man (Cane) coming to Melbourne this very 
night with what I feel is vital information and no one waits to see what he is 
going to say.

Not drugged

"It is beyond my comprehension that when there is relevant evidence available 
it can't be considered.

"I am emotionally drained, but at the same time I now call for an unhurried, 
calm appraisal of capital punishment."

Ryan's 75-ycar-old mother, Mrs Cecilia Ryan, spent an hour with him yesterday.

He also spoke to 2 of his sisters and his step-brother.

Ryan was due to attend Mass in Pentridge' s death cell 2 hours before his 
execution.

He will be moved to the special cell early, as soon as he wakes.

He has not asked for any special meals and will not be given any.

He will not be drugged and will be allowed to make a final statement in the 
condemned cell, a few minutes before his execution, if he wishes.

He will be given Extreme Unction, the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church, 
under the scaffold seconds after he is pronounced dead.

His hands, handcuffed behind his back, will be freed so that they can be 
anointed.

'Realist'

After a post-mortem examination, his body will be buried in quicklime in a 
grave in the Pentridge grounds about 5 p.m.

Late last night the gaol chaplain, Father John Brosnan, said: "Ronald Ryan will 
be all right.

"He will go out on his feet. He is determined to die well."

Father Brosnan said after spending 2 hours with Ryan in his cell: "He is in 
excellent spirits. He is joking continually with the warders with whom he is 
spending his last night. "Ryan is too much a realist to let his spirits fall."

(source: Sydney Morning Herald)

***************'

Last man hanged: 50 years in Australia without an execution



50 years ago, Australia carried out its final execution amid a swirl of protest 
and political pressure. But as Jamie Duncan reports, capital punishment remains 
firmly in the nation's consciousness despite the abolition of the death 
penalty.

Ronald Joseph Ryan was a robber with a long criminal record.

On 3 February 1967, Ryan was hanged for the murder of prison warder George 
Hodson as he escaped Pentridge Jail, in the Melbourne suburb of Coburg.

As the guards took turns to attend a staff room Christmas party on 19 December 
1965, Ryan and accomplice Peter John Walker scaled a 5m (16ft) wall, with 
blankets attached to a hook.

They overpowered a guard, stole guns and forced the guard to open a gate.

Mr Hodson was shot in the chest and died in the middle of a busy road outside 
the jail while trying to grab Walker.

Ryan and Walker escaped but were re-captured in Sydney on 6 January 1966.

11 witnesses said they saw Ryan fire the fatal shot, but a warder testified 
that the only shot he heard was his own. He said he was aiming for Ryan but 
fired over Ryan's head to avoid a woman who blundered into the way.

After 12 days of deliberation, a jury found Ryan guilty of Mr Hodson's murder 
and the judge, Justice John Starke, who was opposed to capital punishment, 
pronounced the mandatory death sentence for the crime.

Walker was found guilty of 2 counts of manslaughter - that of Mr Hodson and the 
shooting death of acquaintance Arthur Henderson while on the run.

At the time in the state of Victoria, the government's cabinet determined the 
fate of condemned prisoners.

The last executions in Victoria occurred in 1951, when Jean Lee - the last 
woman hanged in Australia - and her two male accomplices were executed for 
torturing and murdering a 73-year-old illegal bookmaker.

Support for capital punishment has, with periodic reversals, declined in 
Australia

Between then and 1967, Liberal and Labor cabinets commuted all but one of 35 
death sentences to life imprisonment.

The exception was Robert Tait, who murdered an 82-year-old woman. The 
government's refusal of clemency was overturned in the nation's High Court.

Members of Victorian Premier Sir Henry Bolte's cabinet were known to be 
opponents of capital punishment, but Sir Henry ensured his team refused to 
commute Ryan's sentence.

Years later, juror Tom Gildea said while the jury was convinced of Ryan's 
guilt, none believed he would hang, and 7 later wrote to cabinet seeking 
clemency for Ryan.

The conservative-leaning Melbourne Herald campaigned for Ryan's life. In a 
January 1967 editorial, it said: "The state government's insistence on this 
final solution is causing the deepest revulsion. It is punishment in its most 
barbarous form. And experience has shown it gains nothing but dishonour for the 
community which inflicts it."

Mass protests in sizes never before seen in Melbourne had no effect on Sir 
Henry. Ryan, almost 42, was hanged at Pentridge at 08:00 with hundreds of 
protesters outside the jail.

Queensland was the 1st Australian state to outlaw the death penalty, in 1922. 
Victoria followed in 1975 and New South Wales (NSW) was last, in 1985.

But whenever egregious crimes have shocked Australians, the question of a 
return to capital punishment is raised.

It happened after Martin Bryant shot dead 35 people at Port Arthur in Tasmania 
in 1996; the fire-bombing of Brisbane's Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub by James 
Finch and John Stuart in 1973, which killed 15; and the 2012 rape and 
strangulation of Jill Meagher, 29, by Adrian Ernest Bailey.

The death penalty was raised over the 2003 kidnapping and murder of Daniel 
Morcombe, 13, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, by Brett Peter Cowan; Julian 
Knight's 1987 Hoddle Street massacre in Melbourne; and Ivan Milat's 
"backpacker" murders in NSW in the 1980s and '90s.

Even this year, talk has resurfaced after a car was allegedly deliberately 
driven down a Melbourne pedestrian mall, killing six people and injuring 
dozens. Dimitrious "Jimmy" Gargasoulas, 26, faces murder and other charges.

Crusading commentator-turned-politician Derryn Hinch opposed capital punishment 
for decades before the horrific rape and murder of Sydney nurse, Anita Cobby, 
by five men, including three brothers, in 1986.

Hinch, a senator who heads his own Justice Party, says the death penalty should 
apply in cases such as Knight's, where no doubts exist.

"If Australia had the death penalty, a lot of young women could be alive 
today," Hinch wrote in 2012.

"Mersina Halvagis (fatally stabbed as she tended her grandmother's grave in 
Melbourne in 1997) would be alive today. Her killer, Peter Dupas, would have 
been executed after his first murders. If sex offenders served their full term 
behind bars, Jill Meagher could be alive today," he said.

"If our touchy-feely parole boards spent half as much time considering victims 
and their families as they do to rushing serial, violent criminals back on to 
the streets, this world would be a safer place. And if a federal government had 
the guts - or a state government had the independence and backbone - to hold a 
referendum on the return of capital punishment for some crimes, it would pass 
by a majority of about 75% to 25%."

Maybe not. Polls from Roy Morgan Research between 1947 and 2009 suggest capital 
punishment supporters may be a vocal minority.

Respondents were asked whether they favoured the death penalty or imprisonment 
in murder cases.

In 1947, 1953 and 1962, a sample of 1,000 voters aged 21 and over found they 
favoured capital punishment 67% to 24%, 68-24% and 53-37% respectively, with 
the remainder undecided.

There was no poll around Ryan's 1967 execution. From the next survey in 1975 
until 2009, the sample of 1,000 included anyone aged 14-plus.

In 1975, support for capital punishment fell behind, at 40%, to 43% against, 
but by 1980 it was on top again at 43-40%.

The gap slowly widened. By February 1989, death penalty supporters had an 
absolute majority (52-34%) peaking at 54-36% in 1993.

But there was a dramatic swing in the decade between surveys in 1995 and 2005.

In 1995, there was still absolute majority support for the death penalty, with 
53% in favour and 36% against.

But in November 2005 - 7 months after the arrest in Indonesia of the Bali 9 
heroin traffickers following an Australian Federal Police tip-off - only 27% 
supported it, with 66% opposed. A month later, support slipped further, to 25% 
v 69%. By August 2009, the last survey, it dropped yet again to 23-64%.

A 2014 text message poll of 1,307 people, asking whether anyone who commits a 
lethal act of terror in Australia should face the death penalty, showed narrow 
support for the proposition - 52.5%, with 47.5% against.

Dr Amy Maguire, lecturer in law at Australia's Newcastle University and capital 
punishment opponent, says the executions of Bali 9 drug smugglers Myuran 
Sukumaran and Andrew Chan may have changed Australian attitudes.

Prior to this, Ronald Ryan's execution was at best a dim memory.

"My sense is that the Chan and Sukumaran case enlightened some numbers of 
Australians who may previously been fairly unconcerned about the use of the 
death penalty overseas for people convicted of drug offences," she told the 
BBC.

"As well as having strong advocacy at government level, the families and 
friends of Sukumaran and Chan bravely conveyed their grief publicly and 
demonstrated that capital punishment is effectively torture not only for the 
person executed but also for their loved ones.

"The argument that Sukumaran and Chan had worked very hard to rehabilitate 
themselves and would be more fairly sentenced to life or many years in prison 
was, I think, fairly persuasive to many people."

While there remains a significant proportion of Australians who support capital 
punishment, Dr Maguire believes no Australian government will ever re-introduce 
it.

"No, I believe Australia is very firmly committed to the abolition of capital 
punishment, and in fact the Bali executions galvanised the government into 
building a firmer platform on which to advocate for abolition globally. 
Australian law is unequivocally against the death penalty," she said.

There are legal barriers, too. In 2010 the federal government passed laws 
banning the reintroduction of capital punishment, in line with a voluntary 
international treaty.

But 50 years on, Ronald Ryan's execution and tension over how best to deal with 
heinous acts that were once capital crimes, echoes through Australia's judicial 
system.

(source: BBC News, Feb. 4, 2017)








BANGLADESH:

Living death in condemn cells



Obaid Ali, a death-row convict for 13 long years, was declared innocent by the 
apex court on October 7 last year. As fate would have it, he died in a prison 
cell of the Khulna Medical College Hospital (KMCH) on that very day. It was 
learnt from case documents that Ali was charged with the murder of two police 
constables in 2003. On February 3, 2003, constables Fazlul Haque, Abdul Motaleb 
and Abdul Ahad were cycling back home when they were attacked by people with 
knives. Fazlul and Abdul were killed in the incident, while Ahad escaped with 
injuries. The next day, habildar Ruhul Amin filed a case with the Satkhira 
Sadar police station.

3 years later, a Khulna speedy tribunal sentenced Ali to death. Within 7 days 
of teh verdict, Ali filed an appeal with the High Court (HC), but the matter 
took 6 years to be resolved. The result, in the end, was positive: Ali was 
pronounced innocent. However, it took the Supreme Court another six years to 
uphold the HC decision.

Finally, on October 7 last year, Khulna Jail received the copy of the HC order. 
But Ali had passed away that very morning.

Like him, many death-row convicts sometimes are declared innocent either by the 
HC or the SC. But they are forced to stay inside the condemned cell after the 
announcement of their death penalties by lower courts.

According to HC sources, last year, out of a total of 45 death reference cases, 
only 2 lower court verdicts were upheld by the HC. In fact, most lower court 
verdicts were revised by the HC either by reducing their punishment or 
acquitting some of the convicts.

Till January 20 this year, 1,671 convicts were languishing in condemned cells 
across the country because hundreds of death reference cases were awaiting 
disposal by the HC.

HC sources say 707 death reference cases are pending before the court.

The HC usually disposes of death reference cases year by year. The court has 
disposed of all death reference cases of 2012. It now taking up the cases of 
2013.

According to the sources, the authorities have started working on completing 
“paper books” of the pending cases of 2013 and 2014.

The paper books of cases, forwarded for death reference hearings, contain all 
the documents—the case details, the charge-sheet, the seizure list, witnesses’ 
testimonies and cross-examinations as well the verdict of the trial court. 
After completion of the necessary work, the Chief Justice assigns an HC bench 
for the disposal of the matter. After that, the HC starts hearing the death 
references.

Sources said 117 death-row convicts had filed appeals before the HC against 
their death penalties in 2011, while 100 and 315 had moved the court seeking 
acquittal orders in 2012 and 2013, respectively. As many as 205 convicts had 
filed appeals against their death penalties in 2014, while the same number of 
appellants had appealed to the HC in 2015. The number of appellants has 
increased in recent years.

In 2010, only 542 death references cases were pending before the HC for 
disposal, while the number of pending cases till January this year was 707.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairman, Kazi Riazul Haque, said 
long delay in disposal of cases violated human rights. “A large number of 
prisoners convicted by trial courts are suffering due to uncertainty over their 
fate. The cases should be taken care of as quickly as possible,” he added.

“Everyone, including lawyers, should take effective steps so that all death 
reference cases could be disposed of quickly. If needed, the number of HC 
benches should be increased for disposing of death references,” he noted.

Currently, a total of four HC benches dispose of such cases, a senior official 
in the registrar’s office said.

However, experts say that the number of benches may be increased considering 
the immense suffering of death row-convicts.

Former Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Khandaker Mahbub Hossain 
said that many countries already repealed the death penalty. “But the death 
penalty is delivered indiscriminately in our country. The review proceedings 
take a long time in the HC because death references are sent by lower courts 
from across the country. As a result, death-row convicts had to wait in the 
condemned cell for a long period,” he added.

Death-row convicts, in most cases, lose their mental balance because of the 
agonising waiting period.

So, such cases should be disposed of quickly, the lawyer said.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said that the number of death reference cases 
was increasing over time. At present, a number of such cases are pending before 
the HC for disposal. The number of HC benches should be increased considering 
the sufferings of death row convicts and the importance of the cases. Moreover, 
skilled judges should also be appointed to deal with such cases, he added.

(source: theindependentbd.com)








PHILIPPINES:

Yes to death penalty?



The death penalty in the Philippines was first abolished in 1987, making the 
Philippines the 1st country in Asia to terminate death penalty. Yet, in less 
than a year, with the promulgation of a new Constitution after the ouster of 
the Marcos dictatorship, the military establishment lobbied for its imposition 
to combat the alleged intensifying offensives of the Communist Party of the 
Philippines/New People’s Army guerillas.

In mid-1987, a bill to reinstate the death penalty was submitted to Congress, 
citing recent right-wing coup attempts as example of the alarming deterioration 
of peace and order. In 1988, the House of Representatives passed the bill that 
was being promoted as a counterinsurgency bill. When an ex-military officer, 
Gen. Fidel Ramos, was elected president in 1992, Republic Act 7659 restoring 
the death penalty was signed into law. Political offenses, such as rebellion, 
were dropped from the bill; however, the list of crimes was expanded to include 
economic offenses such as smuggling and bribery. In 1996, RA 8177 was approved, 
stipulating lethal injection as the method of execution. Six years after its 
reimposition, the number of death-penalty convicts increased—indicating that 
the death penalty is not a deterrent to criminality. Certain studies cite 
statistics indicating that there are no signs that criminality has gone down 
with the reimposition of the death penalty 
(http://www.phlsol.nl/AOOa/Pahra-death-penalty-maroo.htm):

1) From 1994 to 1995 the number of persons on death row increased from 12 to 
104. From 1995 to 1996 it increased to 182. In 1997 the number of death 
convicts was at 520, and in 1998 the number of inmates in death row was at 781. 
As of November 1999 there were a total of 956 death convicts at the National 
Bilibid Prisons and at the Correctional Institute for Women.

2) As of December 31, 1999, based on the statistics compiled by the Episcopal 
Commission on Prisoner Welfare of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the 
Philippines, there were a total of 936 convicts interned at the National 
Bilibid Prisons and another 23 detained at the Correctional Institute for 
Women. Of these figures, 6 are minors and 12 are foreigners.

3) A review of death-penalty cases made by the Supreme Court from 1995 to 1999 
indicated that 2 out of every 3 death sentences handed down by the local courts 
were found to be erroneous by the Supreme Court. Out of the 959 inmates the SC 
reviewed, 175 cases were reviewed from 1995 to 1999; 3 cases were reviewed in 
1995, 8 in 1996, 8 in 1997, 38 in 1998 and 118 in 1999. Of the 175 cases, the 
SC affirmed with finality and first affirmation only 31 % or 54 cases involving 
60 inmates. Of these cases, 24 were affirmed with finality, while the remaining 
36 were given first affirmation. 69 % or 121 cases were either modified, 
acquitted or remanded for retrial.

4) A study prepared by the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) on the results of 
the review of cases done by the Supreme Court “point all too clearly to the 
imperfections, weaknesses and problems of the Philippine justice system.” Some 
decisions of the trial courts were overturned for imposing death penalty on 
offenses that were not subject to death penalty. Other decisions of the lower 
courts were set aside because of substantive and procedural errors during 
arraignment and trial. Still others were struck down because the lower court 
misappreciated evidences.

5) Data from the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines showed that in 
1998 more than half of the convicts earned less than the government-mandated 
minimum wage. In a survey conducted among 425 convicts in 1998, 105 or 24.7 
percent were agricultural workers, 103 were construction workers, 73 were 
transport workers, and 42 were workers in sales and services. Only 6 percent 
finished college, while 32.4 % finished various levels of high school, while 
the remaining convicts did not go to school or have finished only elementary or 
vocational education.

On June 24, 2006, then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, apparently giving in 
to the call of the Catholic Church, signed into law RA 9346, “An Act 
Prohibiting the Imposition of Death Penalty in the Philippines.” All crimes 
punishable by death were commuted to life imprisonment (reclusion perpetua).

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, then candidate for president, said in one of the 
presidential debates that he wants capital punishment for criminals involved in 
illegal drugs, gun-for-hire syndicates and those who commit “heinous crimes,” 
such as rape, robbery or car theft where the victim is murdered. He vowed “to 
litter Manila Bay with the bodies of criminals.” Sen. Grace Poe then also 
stated that the capital punishment should apply to criminals convicted of drugs 
and multiple crimes where involved people can no longer be rehabilitated.

Following the election of Mayor Duterte as president, a bill to reinstate 
capital punishment for certain heinous offenses was swiftly reported out of the 
Justice Committee into the full House of Representatives in February 2017. The 
death penalty bill died in the Senate.

The recent surge in heinous crimes—terrorist bombings, drug trafficking, 
plunder, rape, murders, extrajudicial killings, smuggling, kidnaping for 
ransom, gun for hire —has opened the discussion on reinstating the death 
penalty. Tabloids, which widely publicize horrific crimes in the front pages, 
reinforce public fears that lawlessness and criminality have reached 
unprecedented levels. Certain senatorial candidates (e.g., Raffy Alunan, Harry 
Roque) in a recent CNN debate indicated a “Yes” vote for the restoration of 
death penalty.

Is death penalty the antidote to crime? Will criminals be afraid to commit a 
crime if they see that the government is determined to execute them? Oppositors 
have cited several studies debunking the deterrence theory.

I agree! What would prevent people from committing crimes is the certainty of 
apprehension, speedy prosecution and, if warranted, conviction. At present, 
severe imperfections in our justice system, where justice can be bought, could 
likely result in a situation where the innocent, who cannot afford the services 
of adequate legal counsel due to poverty, might be executed. I prefer a 
discussion on the “pros” and “cons” of reinstituting the death penalty—rather 
than a debate on lowering the age of criminal liability to 12. I shudder at the 
thought that our children could be “death eligible” if the death penalty were 
imposed!

In the midst of a strong outcry from citizens who want the government to stop 
criminality, let the response be genuine, effective and equitable reforms in 
our Criminal Justice System. The Five Pillars of the Criminal Justice 
System—(1) The Community, (2) The Law Enforcement, (3) The Prosecution, (4) The 
Courts and (5) Corrections —should function like a chain of links. A weakness 
in any of these links breaks the chain, resulting in a breakdown of the system, 
inordinate delays in the proceedings, acquittal of the guilty and conviction of 
the innocent.

But the biggest problem would be, in my view, a people that have become 
cynical, indifferent, callous, frustrated, hardened and uncaring. This is one 
of the bigger challenges facing this government.

(source: businessmirror.com.ph)