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California | San Quentin begins prison reform - but not for those on death row

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California is transferring everyone on death row at San Quentin prison to other places, as it tries to reinvent the state's most notorious facility as a rehabilitation centre. Many in this group will now have new freedoms. But they are also asking why they've been excluded from the reform - and whether they'll be safe in new prisons. Keith Doolin still remembers the day in 2019 when workers came to dismantle one of the United States' most infamous death chambers.

Singapore: Drug trafficker hanged after last-ditch bid to reopen case fails

Singapore's Changi prison
Convicted Singaporean drug trafficker Hishamrudin Mohd was hanged last Friday in the Changi Prison Complex after failing on the preceding day - in a final court bid - to reopen his case.

Hishamrudin, 56, had been convicted of trafficking in 34.94g of diamorphine and sentenced to death by the High Court on Feb 2, 2016.

A Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) spokesman said last Saturday that Hishamrudin was arrested in an operation on Oct 7, 2010, during which 59 packets containing 604.05g of powdery and granular substances were recovered from his car.

The substances were analysed and found to contain 3.56g of diamorphine, or pure heroin.

He was taken to his home, where 193 packets containing 4,061.68g of powdery and granular substances found to contain 34.94g of pure heroin were recovered.

The CNB spokesman noted that the Misuse of Drugs Act provides for the death penalty if the amount of diamorphine trafficked is more than 15g.

Hishamrudin was accorded due process under the law and his appeal against his conviction and sentence was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on July 3 last year. His petitions for clemency to the President also failed.

But last Thursday afternoon, he filed a criminal motion to reopen the case and it was heard before Judges of Appeal Andrew Phang and Judith Prakash, and Justice Hoo Sheau Peng.

Hishamrudin addressed the court in person on the written submissions he had forwarded earlier.

Lawyers Eugene Thuraisingam and Suang Wijaya acted in court as his "McKenzie friends", to help clarify issues. A McKenzie friend helps a litigant who acts in person in court.

The court, in dismissing his application, found that there was nothing new in substance in his written or oral arguments as the points had been previously heard and rejected.

The Courts found that he had not satisfied the criteria that would allow judges to exercise some discretion at sentencing under the amended Misuse of Drugs Act, as his involvement in the offence was thought to be more than simply transporting drugs and he had not raised any concerns about the state of his mental health in order to seek diminished responsibility for the crime.

Hishamrudin Bin Mohd has maintained his innocence since his arrest and holds that proceedings against him were unfair. At his trial and appeal, he stated that he was assaulted by officers of the Central Narcotics Bureau during his arrest and that officials had planted and tampered with evidence against him. 

According to a family member, he discharged several lawyers assigned to him under the Legal Assistance Scheme for Capital Offences as they did not respect his defence instructions, and eventually chose to represent himself at trial and during his appeal. He therefore elected not to appeal for clemency from the President, and instead sought for months to reopen the case through further appeals. 

Source: tnp.sg, Amnesty International, March 19, 2018


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

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