[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 25



INDIA:

No pardons please: Disposing mercy petitions has been President Mukherjee's 
foremost legacy



In a recent interview, when asked what his legacy would be, President Pranab 
Mukherjee quoted Prospero from The Tempest and said that he would "leave not a 
rack behind". His record in dealing with mercy petitions from convicts makes 
good his claim. Contrary to many of his predecessors Mukherjee disposed of 34 
petitions, rejecting 30 of them and leaving none pending for his successor. 
Ironically, by literally leaving nothing behind, he leaves a clear legacy for 
future presidents to follow - reject mercy petitions in principle as an 
anachronism that has no place in the Constitution of a democratic republic.

The power of pardon, a prerogative power exercised by the sovereign of England, 
has been described as "the brightest jewel in the British crown, and the most 
precious of the rights of the people". Representing the fiction that the 
sovereign was the embodiment of divinity, the power extended to commuting 
sentences and pardoning death row convicts, as he pleased.

Its practical workings however were less exalted and more mundane. As described 
by Vic Gatrell in The Hanging Tree, often judges themselves would commute death 
sentences, replacing them with transportation to America. When the sovereign 
was petitioned, usually the matter was dealt with by the home secretary without 
any fixed rules or procedures in this regard. The entire operation of the power 
to pardon was arbitrary and ad hoc, presumably because that's how the English 
believed the Almighty worked.

In India, which established itself as a democratic, secular republic, the power 
to pardon ought to have been seen as a colonial relic. However, the mai-baap 
sarkar that soon took root seamlessly transplanted the provision into the 
Constitution, not because the President was expected to have shades of divinity 
but because he would act on the aid and advice of government.

This foundational belief was belied because the President often acted on his 
own, contrary to the aid and advice of his ministers. This was most apparent 
during the tenures of KR Narayanan and Pratibha Patil who disagreed with the 
home ministry's recommendation to confirm death sentences in a majority of 
cases before them. More importantly, the very premise of this belief, that a 
democratic government could be the repository of mercy, was anathema in a 
Constitution built on separation of powers and the rule of law.

The death penalty, when awarded, is confirmed by multiple courts, including the 
Supreme Court, pursuant to a law made by Parliament. In such a situation, 
ordinarily no question of mercy ought to arise thereafter. Further, the Supreme 
Court itself through a series of orders, has made it amply clear that 
circumstances pertaining to the criminal - which presumably might be key 
considerations for granting him mercy - would be factored in while awarding the 
death penalty.

Sentencing guidelines laid down in Bachan Singh (1980) required the court to 
take into account every relevant circumstance relating to the crime as well as 
the criminal; Machhi Singh (1983) required the sentencing court to draw up a 
balance sheet of aggravating and mitigating circumstances and Gurvail Singh 
(2013) drew up the crime-criminal-rarest-of-rare test holding that "to award 
death sentence, the aggravating circumstances (crime test) have to be fully 
satisfied and there should be no mitigating circumstance (criminal test) 
favouring the accused."

For the President, and by extension the government, to sit above the Supreme 
Court, take similar factors into account and overturn the court???s decision 
appears to be a case of bypassing the rule of law and unjustifiably breaching 
separation of powers in the process. In practice, the overwhelming rate of 
rejection of mercy petitions, whether for commutation or remission, is evidence 
that it holds out a hollow hope to convicts.

Further, as noted by the Supreme Court in a judgment overturning the rejection 
by Mukherjee of the mercy petition of 15 convicts, the delay in disposing of 
such petitions is often tortuous for death row convicts. At the same time, the 
presence of such a constitutionally sanctioned escape clause for convicts may 
putatively be a reason for the courts handing down a large number of death 
sentences, often erroneously.

The real question for a democratic republic like India to consider is whether 
the death penalty for the crimes for which it is sanctioned, provides an 
effective deterrent for potential offenders in today's sociocultural milieu. By 
taking the surest step yet towards relegating the pardoning power to a 
meaningless constitutional footnote by desuetude, Mukherjee has hopefully left 
a legacy that forces us to ask and carefully debate this critical question.

Further, contrary to some of his predecessors who raised this question 
implicitly by disagreeing with the recommendations of the government and 
consequently keeping files pending, Mukherjee has, by all accounts, largely 
followed the advice of the government. By doing so, he has articulated his 
vision of a restrained presidency - a figurehead towards whom the country looks 
to for guidance, inspiration and moral counsel, not decisions. In a political 
atmosphere, where assertion is the norm, he leaves a legacy of dignified 
restraint worthy of emulation.

In parting, just as many times in his long political career, Mukherjee has 
bowled the country a googly - leaving behind 2 clear legacies while not 
appearing to leave any.

(source: Editorial, The Times of India)








VIETNAM:

Transnat'l drug trafficker arrested in Vietnam



A Vietnamese man, said to be the leader of a transnational drug trafficking 
ring, was arrested in Vietnam's northern Hai Phong city as he was transporting 
more than 9.8 kg. of heroin and 8 kg. of ecstasy, the municipal police said 
Tuesday.

52-year-old Ngo Trac Hiep from Hai Phong, and other members of the ring bought 
lab-made drugs at the Vietnam-Laos border areas, and transported them to 
Vietnamese northern provinces for sale.

The man was arrested when he was driving his pickup truck with the drugs hidden 
in a special compartment of the vehicle along the Hanoi-Hai Phong expressway, 
police said, noting that they seized the biggest-ever amount of drugs in Hai 
Phong.

According to Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling more than 600 grams 
of heroin or more than 2.5 kg. of methamphetamine face the death penalty, along 
with those making or trading 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal 
drugs.

(sources: Xinhua, Philippine News Agency)








PHILIPPINES:

Despite Duterte's appeal for death penalty, Lacson says bill won't pass Senate



Senator Panfilo Lacson doubts the death penalty proposal will get the approval 
of the Senate despite President Rodrigo Duterte's appeal during his 2nd state 
address.

"I am an author of the death penalty bill for almost the same reasons cited by 
the President. Even with his prodding, however, I don't see the death penalty 
being revived under his watch or at least with the present composition of the 
Senate," Lacson said.

There are at least 7 proposals seeking the reimposition of capital punishment 
pending in the Senate justice committee. The committee's chairperson, Senator 
Richard Gordon, is against death penalty.

On Monday, Duterte asked to reimpose death penalty on heinous crimes.

"Despite our recent gains in improving the peace and order situation in the 
country, there is still so much to be desired and if we are to completely 
eradicate the menace of illegal drugs, criminality and corruption, we must do 
it," he said.

"I therefore ask Congress to act on all pending legislations to reimpose the 
death penalty on heinous crimes - especially on the trafficking of illegal 
drugs," Duterte said.

Duterte said the Philippines' policy in dealing with crime is "an eye for an 
eye, a tooth for a tooth."

"You took a life then you must pay for life. That is the only way to even," he 
said.

Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III, who on Monday said death penalty 
is not a priority of the Senate, told reporters Tuesday that the proposal is a 
"de facto priority."

"It will be scheduled soon," Pimentel, president of ruling party PDP-Laban, 
said.

(source: GMA News)