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Death Penalty in Singapore.

Debonerman

Alfrescian
Loyal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Singapore

Public debate
Public debate in the Singaporean news media on the death penalty is almost non-existent, although the topic does occasionally get discussed in the midst of major, well-known criminal cases. Efforts to garner public opinion on the issue are rare, although it has been suggested that the population is influenced by the traditional Chinese view which held that harsh punishment deters crime and helps maintain social peace and harmony.[15] In October 2007, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee said in Parliament that "Certain of us may hold the view that the death penalty should be abolished. But in a survey done two years ago, reported in the Straits Times, 95% of Singaporeans feel that the death penalty should stay. This is something which has helped us to be safe and secure all these years and it is only reserved for a very few select offences."[16]

Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, a former opposition Member of Parliament in Singapore, was reportedly only given a few minutes to speak in parliament on the issue before his comments were rebutted by the Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs.[2][17] Few other opposition members in parliament would bring up the issue, which may be reflective of a population generally indifferent to the matter.

Before the hanging of Shanmugam Murugesu, a three-hour vigil was held on May 6, 2005. The organisers of the event at the Furama Hotel said it was the first such public gathering organised solely by members of the public against the death penalty in Singapore. Murugesu had been arrested after being caught in possession of six packets containing just over 1 kg of cannabis after returning from Malaysia. He admitted knowledge of one of the packets, which contained 300 g, but not the other five.[18][19] The event went unreported on the partially state-owned media and the police shut down an open microphone session just as the first person began to speak.[18][20]

After the hanging of Van Tuong Nguyen, a Vietnamese Australian man from Melbourne, Australia, on December 2, 2005, Sister Susan Chia, the province leader of the Good Shepherd Sisters in Singapore, declared that "The death penalty is cruel, inhumane and it violates the right to life." Chia and several other nuns comforted Nguyen's mother two weeks before his execution for heroin trafficking.[21]

Singapore's death penalty laws have drawn comments in the media. For example, the science fiction author William Gibson, while a journalist, wrote a travel piece on Singapore that he sarcastically titled "Disneyland with the Death Penalty."[22]

[edit] Law Society review
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In December 2005, the Law Society of Singapore revealed that it has set up a committee, named Review Committee on Capital Punishment, to examine capital punishment in the country. The President of the Society, Senior Counsel Philip Jeyaretnam said that the main focus of the review was on issues regarding administering the death penalty such as whether it should be mandatory. A report of the review would be submitted to the Ministry of Law.[23]

[edit] Government response
The government states that the death penalty is only used in the most serious of crimes, sending, they say, a strong message to would-be offenders. They point out that in 1994 and 1999 the United Nations General Assembly failed to adopt resolutions calling for a moratorium on the death penalty worldwide, as a majority of countries opposed such a move.

The Permanent Representative of the Republic of Singapore to the United Nations wrote a letter to the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions in 2001 which stated:

"…the death penalty is primarily a criminal justice issue, and therefore is a question for the sovereign jurisdiction of each country […] the right to life is not the only right, and […] it is the duty of societies and governments to decide how to balance competing rights against each other."[2]
In January 2004, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a response to Amnesty International's report, "Singapore: The death penalty - A hidden toll of executions". It defended the nation's policy to retain the death penalty, predicating its arguments on, amongst others, the following grounds:[5]

There is no international consensus on whether the death penalty should be abolished
Each country has the sovereign right to decide on its own judicial system, taking into account its own circumstances
The death penalty has been effective in keeping Singapore one of the safest places in the world to work and live in
The application of the death penalty is only reserved for "very serious crimes".
The Ministry of Home Affairs also refuted Amnesty International's claims of the majority of the executed being foreigners, and that it was "mostly the poor, least educated, and vulnerable people who are executed." The Ministry stated: "Singaporeans, and not foreigners, were the majority of those executed... Of those executed from 1993 to 2003, 95% were above 21 years of age, and 80% had received formal education. About 80% of those who had been sentenced to capital punishment had employment before their convictions"[5]

Following the hanging of Van Tuong Nguyen in 2005, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reiterated the government's position, stating that "The evil inflicted on thousands of people with drug trafficking demands that we must tackle the source by punishing the traffickers rather than trying to pick up the pieces afterwards... It's a law which is approved of by Singapore's inhabitants and which allows us to reduce the drug problem."[24]

Prior to the United Nations General Assembly's voting on a moratorium on the death penalty in November 2007, Singapore's ambassador Vanu Gopala Menon said: "My delegation would like to remind this committee that capital punishment is not prohibited under international law. Yet it is clear that the sponsors of this draft resolution have decided that there can only be one view on capital punishment, and that only one set of choices should be respected... [the death penalty] is an important component of the administration of law and our justice system, and is imposed only for the most serious crimes and serves as a deterrent. We have proper legal safeguards in place to prevent any miscarriage of justice."[25]

[edit] Cases
[edit] Notable past cases
Johannes van Damme, for drug trafficking. He was the first European executed in Singapore since its independence.
Tong Ching-man and Poon Yuen-chung, for drug trafficking. The two Hong Kong women were both 18 years old at the time of their crime.
Flor Contemplación, for murder.
Angel Mou Pui-Peng, for drug trafficking. A young Macao unmarried mother who was 25 years old at her execution[26].
Van Tuong Nguyen, for drug trafficking. As he was an Australian, the verdict caused much outrage and the Government of Australia had to intervene in the matter.
Took Leng How, for murder of eight-year old Huang Na. Took's appeal was dismissed in the Court of Appeal with Justice Kan Ting Chiu dissenting.
Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, for drug trafficking.
Leong Siew Chor, (nicknamed "Kallang Body Parts Murderer") 51-year-old, convicted in May 2006 for strangling and chopping up his lover's corpse, a 22-year-old Chinese national, Liu Hong Mei.[27] He was hanged in November 2007.[28]
Tan Chor Jin, (nicknamed "One Eyed Dragon"), was sentenced to death in May 2007 for the shooting and murder of a nightclub owner. Tan represented himself in court without a lawyer. He had asked the judge to give him the death sentence[29], and was hanged in January 2009[30].
 
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