Jan. 2
TAIWAN:
Nation keeps death penalty, but reduces executions-----PHASING OUT: The
government hasn't been able to fulfill its goal of abolishing the death
penalty. But it has lowered the number of people it actually executes
instead
Of 17 prisoners sentenced to death last year, just three were executed --
suggesting that the government is trying to legally retain the death
penalty, but in practice carry out as few executions as possible. Since
taking power in 2000, President Chen Shui-bian and his Ministry of Justice
(MOJ) have promised to end the death penalty. But with opinion polls
conducted in recent years by the ministry showing that around 80 % oppose
the abolition of the death penalty, the government has been deterred from
drafting any amendments to the Criminal Code.
However, the government has also been criticized for making little effort
to educate and persuade the public on the matter.
Additionally, the ministry's polls indicate that opposition to the
abolition of the death penalty drops to 40 percent if complementary
measures -- such as sentencing limits and a threshold for parole for life
imprisonment -- are also taken. But the government and the legislature
have failed to get any such amendments approved.
"The Supreme Prosecutor's Office has filed extraordinary appeals to the
Supreme Court for prisoners sentenced to death, making every effort to
keep them alive."----Morley Shih, minister of justice
But despite its inability to abolish capital punishment, the ministry has
proposed policy goals to reduce the scope of cases in which the death
penalty can be applied.
"The Supreme Prosecutor's Office has filed extraordinary appeals to the
Supreme Court for prisoners sentenced to death, making every effort to
keep them alive," Justice Minister Morley Shih (IZL) told the Taipei
Times.
"For those whose extraordinary appeals were rejected by the Supreme Court,
the MOJ has also delayed their executions," Shih added.
Such appeals and delays explain why only 3 out of 17 criminals sentenced
to death last year were actually executed, Shih said.
The ministry is also considering introducing a bill that would keep
criminals given the death sentence under observation in jail for two
years, with those who express full remorse for their crimes being eligible
for life imprisonment.
By introducing such a law, Taiwan could join other countries which retain
the death penalty in law but have virtually abolished it in practice. Many
such countries have not carried out executions for years and are believed
to have policies or established practice that prevents executions from
taking place.
Shih added that the ministry is drafting amendments to the Criminal Code,
which mandates the death penalty for some types of marine piracy. If that
part of the law is revised, their would be no mandatory capital sentencing
left in the Criminal Code.
Another offense that carried a mandatory death sentence -- kidnap leading
to murder -- was amended in 2002 to carry a punishment of life
imprisonment.
Despite the ministry's plans, last week it executed to brothers from
Kaohsiung, Lin Meng-kai and Lin Hsin-hung. Those executions triggered a
protest from the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, a
non-governmental organization.
The Lin brothers were sentenced to death for cruelly murdering one man and
critically injuring the man's brother, both the Lins' neighbors, over a
trivial matter 4 years ago.
"Because the 2 Lins expressed no remorse during their trials, and even
said they would take revenge on the victims' families if they were able to
leave jail, the Supreme Court rejected their extraordinary appeal in June
and the MOJ could not find other legal avenues of appeal," added Shih.
Last January, the ministry executed Wang Chung-hsing for dumping 6 Chinese
women into the Taiwan Strait while he was being chased by the coast guard.
All 6 drowned.
According to the ministry's records, the nation's annual number of
executions has been decreasing for years. 32 prisoners were executed in
1998, a number that shrank to just ten in 201, and only 3 each in 2004 and
last year.
Shih said that Taiwan might not be able to abolish the death penalty soon,
because a majority of the public believes that it deters crime more
effectively than other punishments, and that without the death penalty,
relatives of the victims of cruel crimes would not be given justice.
According to the global human-rights group Amnesty International, "while a
total of 122 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or
practice, 74 other countries and territories retain and use the death
penalty, but the number of countries which actually execute prisoners in
any one year is much smaller."
The organization said that based on publicly-available reports, at least
3,400 people are executed in China each year, but that the true number is
thought to be much higher.
In March 2004 a delegate at the National People's Congress said that
"nearly 10,000" people are executed every year in China, the organization
added.
Agruments for an against the death penalty
For
*The existence of the death penalty is the only way to truly deter
criminals and maintain social order.
*The death penalty is the only way to comfort members of a victim's family
and society at large.
*The human rights of both the victim and the accused must be taken into
consideration. Issuing the death penalty for heinous crimes is the only
way to meet social expectations. Would a lesser verdict than the death
penalty for kidnapper and killer Chen Chin-hsing or the killer or killers
of former Taoyuan County chief Liu Pang-yu and 7 others be acceptable to
social?
*Society must be fair and just, If the death penalty cannot be applied to
someone who has killed many people, this fairness and justice is lost.
Against
*The death penalty does not solve the crime problem. Both local and
international studies have found that instituting the death penalty does
not have an impact on social order, and in particular does not reduce the
rate of serious crime.
*It is different to avoid making mistakes in investigations, and
inevitably some people are mistakenly charged with crimes. Having a death
penalty means some innocent people may be put to death.
*Executing a criminal is a primitive form of revenge that does not help
society advance.
*No one, not even the state, has the right to kill. Respect for life must
also include respect for the lives of killers.
*The abolishment of the death penalty is an international trend, and it is
beneficial to a country's image and diplomacy.
(source: The Taipei Times)
JAPAN:
No. of death row inmates hits 78, sign of toughening penalties
The number of inmates whose death sentences have been finalized stood at
78 as of Thursday, the largest in 37 years, reflecting social demands for
tougher penalties in the wake of increasingly savage crimes, according to
legal authorities.
Death sentences were finalized for 15 inmates last year and 11 this year,
bringing the total figure of those awaiting death to its highest since
1968, when 82 inmates faced the gallows.
One to three inmates have been executed annually since 2000, and with only
one inmate hanged this year, anti-death penalty campaigners have voiced
concerns that another massive execution may take place in the near future.
Meanwhile, 38 people were sentenced to death this year, following 42 last
year -- with 10 at the Supreme Court, 13 at the district courts and 15 at
the high courts.
A Tokyo lawyer Yoshihiro Yasuda, well-known anti-death penalty campaigner,
said, "The spread of social insecurity is leading to the tendency to
toughen penalties. I want to prove that there is serious fault in the
system of capital punishment."
(source: TMCNet news, Dec. 29)
INDIA:
Death sentence for killing daughters
A father who killed all his 5 daughters by throwing them into the river
Narmada at Bharuch was awarded capital punishment here on Saturday. A
Bharuch court ordered that the father Salim Sheikh should be hanged to
death.
The fast-track court of judge D D Rajput awarded the punishment after
hearing the case. During the trial, Salim's wife Roshanbanu also appeared
in the court as a witness and gave a testimony against Salim.
On February 5, 2004, Salim had come to the Narmada bridge on the outskirts
of Bharuch and first threw 2 of his daughters Yasmin (5) and Suhana (3)
from the bridge into the river.
A truck driver spotted Salim when he was trying to throw the other
3daughters from the bridge. When the driver asked him what was he doing,
Salim stopped.
However, after the truck passed, Salim threw the remaining 3 girls -
Shagufta (9), Rukhsana (8) and Simran (4) - from the bridge. Shantaben
Vasava, a woman staying in a shanty under the bridge saw Salim doing this.
She later informed the police regarding the incident, but little could be
done as no bodies were found. It was only a day later that the bodies were
found.
The couple had 6 children, the youngest of them being a 10-month-old son
Shabir. The financial condition of the couple is known to have been poor.
(source: The Times of India)
