U.K. Author Says He Won't Apologize for Book on Singapore's Death Penalty

Alan Shadrake (left), the British author charged for contempt of court for challenging the integrity and independence of Singapore's judiciary, said he wouldn’t apologize for his book on the city's death penalty.

"I want to have my day in court," he said after his trial was adjourned today to allow his lawyer more time to prepare a defense of fair criticism and fair comment. "I didn't spend 3 years writing the book only to run away," Shadrake said.

The 75-year-old writer is also being investigated for criminal defamation by Singapore authorities. His book "Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore's Justice in the Dock," suggests that the government "succumbs to political and economic pressures" in meting out the death penalty, the Attorney-General's Chambers said in court papers.

Shadrake can "tender an unreserved apology in unqualified terms," David Chong, chief counsel of the Attorney-General's civil division, said in court today. "Justification is no defense" for contempt of court, Chong

said.

Refusing to apologize would count as an "aggravating factor," the Attorney-General’s office said in a statement today. "An apology tendered to the court, if unqualified and sincere, may mitigate the punishment," according to the statement.

The book "insinuates that the Singapore judiciary is a tool of the People's Action Party to muzzle political dissent" through the award of "heavy damages in defamation actions brought without legal basis," the Attorney General's office said in the court papers. The book contains comments that imply the Singapore judiciary was "guilty of impropriety" by being "biased particularly against the weak, poor or less educated," according to the papers.

Contentious Statements

Shadrake's lawyer M. Ravi asked Justice Quentin Loh today to order Chong "not to put unnecessary fear in the media" after the prosecutor told journalists not to cite contentious statements from the book or risk being in contempt as well.

"I see quite a number of members of the media smiling," Loh said. "I don't think they're in fear."

Shadrake's book isn’t banned in Singapore, the Media Development Authority said in an e-mailed statement today. The regulator added that book retailers and distributors will have to seek legal advice on whether they can sell or distribute the book in the city-state.

“Singapore uses criminal defamation laws to silence critics of government policies," Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific Deputy Director Donna Guest said. "If Singapore aspires to be a global media city, it needs to respect global human rights standards for freedom of expression."

The Singapore police have said that Shadrake’s anti-death penalty views are not the issue in its investigations.

Singapore's Laws

"It is his violation of the laws of Singapore which are," the police said. "Those who disagree with our position have presented their arguments and as a matter of principle, we respect their right to hold such opposing views, as we hope they do ours."

The city-state, which has one of the world’s lowest crime rates according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes, imposes a death penalty for offenses including murder and drug trafficking.

Singapore in 2008 expanded the scope of free speech including allowing outdoor public demonstrations without police permits at designated areas and eased restrictions on political films. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in August 2008 the moves were to "liberalize our society, widen the space for expression and participation."

Contempt of court carries a jail sentence, a fine, or both. No maximum penalty has been specified under Singapore's constitution, according to the Attorney General's office.

Previous Cases

In March 2009, Singapore's High Court fined a senior Wall Street Journal editor S$10,000 ($7,300) for the publication of 3 articles that the city-state’s government said showed contempt of its judiciary. Three activists were sentenced to between 7 and 15 days in prison for wearing t-shirts with pictures of a kangaroo dressed as a judge in another contempt of court lawsuit.

Dressed in a sand-colored linen suit, Shadrake waved to the gallery as he entered the court earlier and showed the thumbs up sign. His lawyer told the court that Shadrake suffers from a heart condition and hypertension and has been “put to severe stress,” because of the trial and criminal defamation investigation.

Shadrake told reporters outside the court the case has helped his book, now in its third printing, "sell like hot cakes." The Singapore government has "blown me up into an international celebrity," he said. "Before, I was just an unknown poor journalist."

The case is Attorney-General vs Alan Shadrake OS720/2010 in the Singapore High Court.

Source: Bloomberg News, July 30, 2010

Comments

'No Warning': The Death Penalty In Japan

Stakes for wrongful convictions are high in Japan, where the death penalty has broad public support despite criticism over how it is carried out. Tokyo: Capital punishment in Japan is under scrutiny again after the world's longest-serving death row prisoner, Iwao Hakamada, was awarded $1.4 million in compensation this week following his acquittal last year in a retrial. Stakes for wrongful convictions are high in Japan, where the death penalty has broad public support despite international criticism over how it is carried out.

Louisiana's First Nitrogen Execution Reflects Broader Method Shift

Facing imminent execution by lethal gas earlier this week, Jessie Hoffman Jr. — a Louisiana man convicted of abducting, raping and murdering a 28-year-old woman in 1996 — went to court with a request: Please allow me to be shot instead. In a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on March 16 seeking a stay of his execution by nitrogen hypoxia, a protocol that had yet to be tested in the state, Hoffman requested execution by firing squad as an alternative.

A second South Carolina death row inmate chooses execution by firing squad

Columbia, S.C. — A South Carolina death row inmate on Friday chose execution by firing squad, just five weeks after the state carried out its first death by bullets. Mikal Mahdi, who pleaded guilty to murder for killing a police officer in 2004, is scheduled to be executed April 11. Mahdi, 41, had the choice of dying by firing squad, lethal injection or the electric chair. He will be the first inmate to be executed in the state since Brad Sigmon chose to be shot to death on March 7. A doctor pronounced Sigmon dead less than three minutes after three bullets tore into his heart.

South Carolina | Spiritual adviser of condemned inmate: 'We're more than the worst thing we've done'

(RNS) — When 67-year-old Brad Sigmon was put to death on March 7 in South Carolina for the murder of his then-girlfriend's parents, it was the first time in 15 years that an execution in the United States had been carried out by a firing squad. United Methodist minister Hillary Taylor, Sigmon's spiritual adviser since 2020, said the multifaceted, months long effort to save Sigmon's life, and to provide emotional and spiritual support for his legal team, and the aftermath of his execution has been a "whirlwind" said Taylor, the director of South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

USA | Federal death penalty possible for Mexican cartel boss behind 1985 DEA agent killing

Rafael Caro Quintero, extradited from Mexico in 2022, appeared in Brooklyn court as feds weigh capital charges for the torture and murder of Agent Enrique Camarena NEW YORK — The death penalty is on the table for notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, the so-called “narco of narcos” who orchestrated the torture and murder of a DEA agent in 1985, according to federal prosecutors. “It is a possibility. The decision has not yet been made, but it is going through the process,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Saritha Komatireddy said in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday.

Execution date set for prisoner transferred to Oklahoma to face death penalty

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.

Inside Florida's Death Row: A dark cloud over the Sunshine State

Florida's death penalty system has faced numerous criticisms and controversies over the years - from execution methods to the treatment of Death Row inmates The Sunshine State remains steadfast in its enforcement of capital punishment, upholding a complex system that has developed since its reinstatement in 1976. Florida's contemporary death penalty era kicked off in 1972 following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia , which temporarily put a stop to executions across the country. Swiftly amending its laws, Florida saw the Supreme Court affirm the constitutionality of the death penalty in 1976's Gregg v. Georgia case.

Bangladesh | Botswana Woman Executed for Drug Trafficking

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Lesedi Molapisi, a Botswana national convicted of drug trafficking, was executed in Bangladesh on Friday, 21 March 2025. The 31-year-old was hanged at Dhaka Central Jail after exhausting all legal avenues to appeal her death sentence. Molapisi was arrested in January 2023 upon arrival at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, where customs officials discovered 3.1 kilograms of heroin hidden in her luggage. Following a trial under Bangladesh’s Narcotics Control Act, she was sentenced to death in May 2024. Her execution was initially delayed due to political unrest in the country but was carried out last week.

Oklahoma executes Wendell Grissom

Grissom used some of his last words on Earth to apologize to everyone he hurt and said that he prays they can find forgiveness for their own sake. As for his execution, he said it was a mercy. Oklahoma executed Wendell Arden Grissom on Thursday for the murder of 23-year-old Amber Matthews in front of her best friend’s two young daughters in 2005. Grissom, 56, was executed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. local time, becoming the first inmate to be put to death by the state in 2025 and the ninth in the United States this year.

564 People On Death Row In India, Highest Since The Turn Of The Century

In 90% of of all death penalty sentences in 2024, trial courts imposed sentences in the absence of adequate information about the accused, finds a recent report Bengaluru: Following the uproar and the widespread protests after the August 2024 rape and murder of a medical professional in Kolkata’s RG Kar hospital, there were demands for death penalty for the accused. The state government passed the Aparajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2024 (awaiting presidential assent) which included mandatory death sentence for rape which results in death of the victim or if the victim is left in a vegetative state, despite such a mandatory sentence being unconstitutional.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog