HEADLINE | Death penalty should be abolished for all crimes: Suhakam
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KUALA LUMPUR: Steadfast in its position, Suhakam is urging the courts to seriously “consider law reforms relating to punishment and incarceration meted out, versus the gravity of all crimes calling for the death penalty”.
Its commissioner in charge of death row issues, Ragunath Kesavan, told theSun that Suhakam wants a progressive move from a criminal justice system that is rooted in deterrent and retributive justice to “restorative and rehabilitative justice”.
“Adequate safeguards and best practice guidelines should be in place and enforced to ensure the courts adopt sentencing practices that would achieve these goals.
“Prison conditions and standards of treatment of prisoners must also be improved to ensure that they do not effectively become cruel and degrading for those sentenced to natural life in prison,” he said.
Memento Maxima Digital MarketingRagunath was commenting on the unanimous passing of the Abolition of Death Penalty Bill 2023 on Monday, which removed the mandatory death penalty from our statutes.
The Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction of Federal Court) Bill 2023, which was also passed, will allow for the review of the death penalty or natural life imprisonment that has already been meted out by the Federal Court.
The mandatory death penalty will be replaced with an alternative punishment, which is “imprisonment for a term not less than 30 years but not exceeding 40 years, and if not sentenced to death, shall also be punished with whipping of not less than 12 strokes”, depending on the offence.
In addition, natural life imprisonment as a punishment will be completely abolished while the death penalty will be abolished for offences that do not result in death, except for three offences – Sections 121 and 121A of the Penal Code and Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.
These, however, do not mean there will not be any more death penalties pronounced in the country. It only means they will not be “mandatory” and that judges now have discretionary powers to impose it if the punishment befits the crime, such as in cases of murder, terrorist acts and hostage-taking.
Ragunath said as of March this year, a total of 1,320 people in the country were incarcerated on death row. Over a quarter are foreigners, while more than half “who are awaiting death by hanging” were convicted of drug trafficking charges.
But what exactly does “death row” mean?
“To put it bluntly, death row means being held in solitary confinement 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until he exhausts all the legal processes at the Court of Appeal and Federal Court, which would have taken at least five or six years.
“And after exhausting the Federal Court process, death row inmates would apply for a pardon to the Pardons Board, which will allow or reject the petition. This application can only be done once in their lifetime,” he said.
The Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction of Federal Court) Bill 2023 allows those serving a mandatory death sentence and who are currently on death row to apply to the Federal Court to review their sentence.
Ragunath said Suhakam maintains its position that the death penalty should be abolished for all crimes and replaced with alternative punishment.
“As mandated by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Act 1999, we regularly review laws and provide recommendations for reform based on international human rights standards.”
He said Suhakam has continuously advocated the total abolition of the death penalty through various stakeholder engagements and programmes, including conferences, debates and exhibitions to raise public awareness and support on this issue.
“We conducted a Stakeholder Consultation on Alternative Punishment and Interim Measures for Total Abolition of the Death Penalty in Malaysia on Oct 2, 2019 to obtain views on related issues and input to formulate our recommendations to the government.
“Thirty-nine participants from relevant government agencies, members of the Malaysian Bar Council, Attorney-General’s Chambers and NGOs attended this consultation. The report was submitted to the home minister in 2019.”
Ragunath said since then, many factors caused the delay in ending mandatory death sentences. These included public sentiment, political considerations and concerns over the potential impact on crime rates.
“However, civil society organisations and human rights advocates continued to call for the abolition of the death penalty in Malaysia, citing concerns over its fairness, effectiveness, and the risk of wrongful convictions.”
We support the move to repeal natural life imprisonment because there is no element of rehabilitation if an accused is sentenced to life in prison. said Suhakam is pleased to note that the abolition of the mandatory death penalty received cross-party support.
“This augurs well for Malaysia, and we look forward to further reforms in the criminal justice system,” he said.
Now that the two Bills have been passed, Ragunath said Suhakam will continue to urge the government to take concurrent steps towards the total abolition of the death penalty.
“We support the move to repeal natural life imprisonment because there is no element of rehabilitation if an accused is sentenced to life in prison. There is also no second chance for them if they are incarcerated for tens of years with no provision to commute sentences in lieu of good behaviour.
“While there are victims’ families who do not support the total abolition of the death sentence, humanity itself has gone beyond the ‘eye for an eye’ phase of history. So, no matter what crime a person has committed, must we continue the barbaric practice of taking lives?”
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