Fatal stabbing of cabby: No grounds for death penalty, says judge
Judge says prosecutors need to show life sentence not enough as deterrent
Published on Feb 11, 2014
By K.C. Vijayan Senior Law Correspondent
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Odd job worker Wang Wenfeng was facing the death penalty for fatally stabbing a taxi driver nearly five years ago.
Instead, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and given the maximum 24 strokes of the cane in November last year.
In judgment grounds released yesterday, the High Court made clear in this rare case that it would impose the death penalty if prosecutors could show a life sentence would not be enough as a deterrent instead.
Justice Lee Seiu Kin, explaining why he decided not to hang Wang, said "the only evidence" prosecutors had produced in asking for the death penalty to deter others was this "single incident of murder in the past five years".
Get the full story from The Straits Times.
