Resolutions Adopted at the 69th Annual General Meeting of the Malaysian
Bar Held at Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Hotel (Saturday, 14 Mar 2015)
Resolution 4
Motion on Royal Pardon and the Death Penalty”, proposed by Charles Hector Fernandez, dated 6 Mar 2015
Whereas:
(1)
Article 42(1) Federal Constitution provides that: ‘The Yang di-Pertuan
Agong has power to grant pardons, reprieves and respites in respect of
all offences which have been tried by court-martial and all offences
committed in the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and
Putrajaya; and the Ruler or Yang di-Pertua Negeri of a State has power
to grant pardons, reprieves and respites in respect of all other
offences committed in his State.’
(2)
Article 42(3) Federal Constitution also states that, ‘Where an offence
was committed wholly or partly outside the Federation or in more than
one State or in circumstances which make it doubtful where it was
committed, it shall be treated for the purposes of this Article as
having been committed in the State in which it was tried….’
(3)
Anyone can move the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Ruler or Yang di-Pertua
Negeri of a State to exercise this power to grant pardons, reprieves and
respites, including commuting the sentence of death.
(4)
Mindful that any miscarriage or failure of justice in the
implementation of the death penalty is irreversible and irreparable, and
the other arguments that have been advanced for the abolition of the
death penalty are good reasons why the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Ruler or
Yang di-Pertua Negeri of a State to exercise their powers to commute the
death sentence to one of imprisonment.
(5) In
Thailand, Royal Pardon has resulted in 90 percent or more persons
sentenced to death having their sentence commuted to imprisonment.
(6)
Information about the whole process of application for pardon is not
easily available to the public. Neither are the principles or the
considerations that are relevant in making or considering such
application.
(7) It is known that Malaysia has
commuted the death penalty for some foreign nationals, possibly on the
application of foreign nation states, possibility by reason of some
diplomatic consideration. If there are different standards applicable
for the commuting of the death penalty, then this will be considered
discriminatory against local Malaysian death row inmates and those from
less influential nation states. The statistics of persons whose death
sentence had been commuted need to be obtained, and the reasons for this
need to be studied, analyzed and considered.
(8)
On 18/12/2014, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a
Resolution to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to
abolishing the death penalty. This is the fifth time this resolution has
been tabled since the first in 2007. 117 member states voted in favour
of the 2014 resolution, indicating the continuing growing global support
for the abolition of the death penalty.
We hereby resolve:
That
the Bar Council do the needful to study, and increase awareness about
all aspects of the procedures relating to the application for pardon.
Source: Malaysian Bar Website
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