(Ed. Note: A law was passed in 1993 re-imposing the death penalty after its abolition by then President Corazon Aquino in 1987. Since 1994, 995 Filipinos have been sentenced to death. Unlike other Asian countries that impose capital punishment, the President of the Philippines, Joesph Estrada, alone has the power to commute a death sentence, or indefinitely postpone an execution. According to anti-death penalty advocates most people who were sentenced to death are poor people. Seven people have been executed recently, three for rape. )

It is reported that over a thousand convicts are on the death row pending presidential executions with the possibility that some would be pardoned while others executed.

In a number of other Asian countries the clamour for the introduction of the death sentence is gathering momentum given the spiralling of grave violence in many societies. The often quoted arguments are that they act as deterrents. Besides, the criminals are found to be ‘dangerous’ for the society and as such they need to be eliminated. While such arguments need to be examined within a comprehensive framework, we will try to present briefly some of its major aspects.

In a statement issued at the end of a seminar on Fair Trial, where a number of senior lawyers and a retired Supreme Court judge were present, it was asserted that using the death sentence to discourage crimes amounts to an admission of the discarding of proper investigations as an effective tool in controlling them. "Instead of investigation, an executive approach has been adopted. This has to be condemned as inhuman and callous".

It must be remarked that the above statement springs from the consideration of a number of important factors which are societal, judicial and religious.

Societal Factors

"Living in the land of the rising crime" is the headlines of an article by Howard French in South China Morning Post of 14 October, 1999. Violence and crime among school youth is on the increase according to the national figures in Japan. The situation is quite similar to what is happening in a number of other countries. The United States in an apparent acknowledgement of mounting youth crimes, to the dismay of many, decides to treat minors as adults in criminal judicial processes. In Sri Lanka, it is suicides particularly among the youth, estimated to be over three deaths each day. Are we not in the throes of a major societal upheaval tied to systematic and endemic violence.

The Japanese trying to understand this phenomenon acknowledges that it is not an expression of social deviance but a ‘by-product of the single-minded industriousness’, which has been the driving force behind the Japanese economic success. It is said of Sri Lanka that it is the whole atmosphere of violence, combined with growing frustrations, that compel the youth to inflict punishment on themselves or on others.

"Most kids want positive attention, but if they can’t get that, they will seek other kinds of attention. This includes robbery or committing real acts of violence", is a valid remark made by Toshiki Toriyam, a Japanese teacher who has written numerous books on the problems of the youth. The whole point is whether the society can exonerate itself by killing the individuals that have been the victims of its own making. Thus calling for death is more a judgement on the society itself, that is incapable of handling the violence that it has generated.

Judicial Factors

Despite the comprehensive character of the judicial systems in a number of Asian countries there have been serious lapses in their applications. Enormous defects obliterating fair trials have been observed in the delivery of justice. In a context where inadequacies, mal-practices and the subversions of the law in the aspects of investigations, prosecutions and actual trials have been prevalent, and where the fairness in the decision is already subverted, a death sentence is highly questionable. Besides, the whole purpose of punishment being correctional can be defeated if it leads to death. It then assumes the form of revenge where the cycle of violence get juridical legitimation.

Religious Factors

It is somewhat strange to discover that we retain some of the vestiges of the past where for instance the sins of many were cast on an animal that was led into the desert or from the law of ‘eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth….’. Despite the fact that these have been denounced and superseded by more profound values and principles.

Death penalty is inconceivable in the context of the teachings of Buddha where the respect is for all forms of life, and violence is to be overcome by non-violence (and not by violence), or in Christianity the law of talism is replaced by forgiveness and love. Respect for life has been the foundation of religions and the inalienable right to life has been declared by the United Nations as the basis for all rights.

In this context the efforts of organisations like Task Force Detainees (TFD) which tries to place the debate on death sentence from the victims perspective needs to be recognised and supported.

(Source: Religious Perspective on Human Rights E-Newsletter, Vol.1, No.26)