Judges will be given discretion to impose life imprisonment instead of death penalty in certain specific instances of drug trafficking and murder.
This comes after a review of the death penalty by the Ministry of Home Affairs in December 2010. It had deferred all executions since it began reviewing drug cases in July last year.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Teo Chee Hean said in Parliament on Monday that the review reaffirmed the relevance of the death penalty for all the offences to which it currently applies.
Mr Teo said that for drug trafficking, mandatory drug penalty will continue to apply except where two 'specific, tightly-defined' conditions are both met.
First, the person must have only played the role of a courier. He or she must not have been involved in any other activity related to drug supply or distribution.
Second, the person must have cooperated with authorities in a "substantive" way, or has a mental disability that "substantially imapirs" his judgment of the gravity of the act.
Other than these instances, the death penalty will remain, such as for drug kingpins and distributors, said DPM Teo.
Minister for Law K Shanmugam, who spoke after DPM Teo in Parliament, said that in respect of how the mandatory death penalty applies to cases amounting to murder, the Government intends to apply capital punishment only when there is an intention to kill.
Source: AsiaOne, July 9, 2012
Law associations hail changes to mandatory death penalty
The Association of Criminal Lawyers of Singapore (ACLS) and the Law Society of Singapore have hailed the proposed changes to how the mandatory death penalty is applied in drug trafficking and homicide cases.
Their statements in full are as follows:
"The Association of Criminal Lawyers of Singapore is heartened to hear that the Ministry of Law is proposing the partial abolishment of the mandatory death penalty for certain offences.
"This marks a significant first step in re-tuning the oft-derided application of the mandatory death penalty for accused persons who are not at the extreme ends of the culpability scale. The Ministry of Law's proposal to give our Judges the discretion in deciding if the death penalty should be imposed in Section 300(b), (c), and (d) of the Penal Code recognises that there is a wide spectrum of culpability in murder cases. We are glad that the Ministry of Law has acted upon the realisation that the mandatory death penalty has a limited (if any) deterrent effect on certain accused persons such as those who act without properly considering the consequences of their actions. In this vein, the limited exceptions moored by the Ministry of Home Affairs for certain drug runners recognise the need not to impose the ultimate penalty on the pawns in the drug trafficking game.
"Further, the proposal to consider the retrospective application of these laws to the inmates currently on death row is reflective of the sincere thought that has been put into formulating this progressive change in the law. The ACLS understands that the effecting of the death penalty has been suspended since 2010 and the new measures put in place will provide a massive sense of relief to these inmates. The ACLS looks forward to contributing to the discussion surrounding the scope of the proposed retrospective effect of the said amendments.
"This change is a significant milestone in Singapore's legal history and recognises that the measure of a society is how it treats its most unfortunate. Death row inmates deserve punishment, but not all deserve death. These new measures are progressive and will have (a) massive impact on the criminal justice system," wrote Mr Subhas Anandan, President, ACLS.
"The Law Society welcomes this development in our criminal justice system. During the review of the Penal Code in 2007, the Society had recommended to the Government that the death penalty should be discretionary for all offences where the death sentence is now mandatory. This first step towards greater discretion in sentencing for murder offences will give judges more flexibility in the administration of justice, and more room to temper justice with mercy where the facts of the case require," wrote Mr Wong Meng Meng, SC, President of the Law Society of Singapore.
"This is a historic moment for the criminal justice system in Singapore. The announcement represents a significant step in humanising the criminal law. The criminal Bar has laboured many years for such a change to the mandatory death penalty in order to give the courts more discretion. We are very happy that the Ministry of Law has heard our voice over the years and that our views matter. As criminal lawyers, we are proud to be a stakeholder in the administration of criminal justice," wrote Mr Wendell Wong, Chairman, Criminal Practice Committee, Law Society of Singapore.
Source: TODAYonline, July 9, 2012
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