Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Abolishing death penalty will not burden penal system(Sun Daily, 14/10/2018)

Abolishing death penalty will not burden penal system

KUALA LUMPUR: The move to abolish the death penalty and stop all pending executions will not further tax the penal system, said human activist Charles Hector (pix)

He said the Cabinet's decision on repealing capital punishment would not add significantly to the number of prisoners in the country. 

"The argument that the abolition of the death penalty will increase prison population is absurd as the number of persons executed is small," said the lawyer.

"A total of 35 executions took place from 2007 to 2017, that is about 3.5 per year. Death row inmates are generally kept in solitary confinement. 

"As of end June 2018, we had about 1,267 people on death row, or 2.7% of the prison population of about 60,000 people."

"The maintenance of the death row and executions incur substantially more cost than ordinary imprisonment," he said. 

"There will be no significant increase of (prison) population at all," he said. 

Hector also said abolishing the death sentence would also not lead to the rise in serious crime. 

"Malaysia has had the death penalty for serious drugs, firearms offences and murder for so long, and that has not reduced the rate of these crimes," he said.

"What will reduce the crime rate is the increased efficiency and sophistication of law enforcement agencies to tackle these crimes."

Malaysian Bar president George Varughese said the government would need to work with Pardons Board to ensure that the more than 1,250 prisoners on death row are spared the death penalty.

On June 28, Prison Department deputy director Supri Hashim said there were 1,267 individuals on death row, or 2.7% of the prison population that currently stands at 60,000 persons.

He said they were at various stages of appeal – 336 in the Court of Appeal, 128 in the Federal Court, and 442 at the state's pardons board.- Sun Daily, 14/10/2018

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