Has Rama X revived Thailand’s death penalty?

When Thailand announced on Monday night that it had carried out its first execution in nine years, the news was met with shock. The country had refrained from imposing the death penalty since the lethal injection of two drug dealers in 2009. It had also repeatedly pledged to look into ditching capital punishment altogether.

That changed on the night of 19 June 2018, when the Corrections Department said it had sent a 26-year-old man convicted of aggravated murder to the lethal injection chamber.

What’s puzzling is the authorities’ refusal to discuss or explain the question of why him—and why now? As any journalist working in Thailand would tell you: once Thai bureaucrats keep mum about certain questions, it’s time to raise the alarm.

Behind this surprising turn of events—which has virtually gone unreported by the media—is King Vajiralongkorn’s apparent refusal to grant the condemned man a royal pardon and stay his execution. This is a significant departure from his late father’s longstanding practice of allowing death-row prisoners to live.

Under Thai law, even after the Supreme Court has handed down a death sentence, it can be overturned by His Majesty the King if a petition is filed to the palace within 60 days. The king can then deliberate on the petition as long as he wishes.

It was under this mechanism that King Bhumibol, who died in October 2016, effectively stopped Thailand from carrying out the death penalty for nearly a decade. Petitions submitted by condemned prisoners were left unanswered by the palace, leading prison officials to treat them as a matter “under royal deliberation”. They refrained from putting the petitioners to death, lest they were seen as intruding on royal authority. More than 500 death-row inmates continue to live indefinitely because of this inaction.

It’s unclear why King Bhumibol left the petitions unanswered during the last decade of his life. Maybe he personally didn’t believe in the death penalty. Maybe he didn’t want to interfere with the justice system. Or maybe he was simply too unwell to give them a thought—his ailing health took a steady downturn after 2009.

His successor seems to be taking a different route. There are strong indications that Teerasak Longji submitted a petition, but unlike those condemned before him, his plea for clemency was rejected by His Majesty the King.

Teerasak’s family has confirmed this, albeit indirectly. In a tearful interview with reporters, Teerasak’s sister told them she was only informed of the execution after he was put to death. According to her, Teerasak wrote to his family as late as 31 May and expressed his hope that he would be allowed to live and reform himself.

“He still didn’t know he would be executed, and he still said he wanted to turn his life around and return to society as a good person,” Chutamas Longji said of her late brother on 19 June.

The Supreme Court had already sentenced Teerasak to death. Why did he hope the penalty would change? It could only be because he had filed for royal clemency.

The fact that Teerasak’s family didn’t know the execution date is itself telling. If Teerasak had declined to submit a petition, he would have known—and his family would have known—that the execution would come once the 60 days after the Supreme Court’s verdict had passed.

In contrast, when royal petitions are rejected, the prisoner must be put to death within 24 hours. Informing relatives would not be a priority for prison officials.

An example of this protocol was the infamous execution of three men accused of assassinating the young Rama VIII in 1946. Their petitions were rejected by Rama IX on 17 February 1955 and they were promptly put in front of the firing squad the next day.

Even without the clue provided by Teerasak’s sister, prison officials would have been extremely reluctant to dare carry out Thailand’s first execution in 9 years without first consulting the legal system’s final authority: the king himself.

King Vajiralongkorn’s seeming refusal to pardon Teerasak, or even tacitly allow him to live, could have far-reaching implications. What will happen to the 517 death-row inmates whose fates currently hinge on the King’s mercy?

Source: New Mandala, Anonymous, June 22, 2018.The author, a Thai journalist, has requested anonymity.

Thailand: Shocking resumption of the death penalty condemned

(Bangkok, Paris) Thailand’s resumption of executions is an affront to human rights and a betrayal of its numerous commitments towards abolition, FIDH and its member organization Union for Civil Liberty (UCL) said today.

According to Thailand’s Department of Corrections under the Ministry of Justice, between 3pm and 6pm today, Theerasak Longji, 26, was executed by lethal injection at an unspecified location. Mr. Theerasak was found guilty of a premeditated murder he had committed in Trang on 17 July 2012.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms Thailand’s resumption of the death penalty. Today’s execution is inexplicable, unjustified, and contradicts the numerous commitments Thailand has made at the national and international level towards the abolition of the death penalty.” -- Debbie Stothard, FIDH Secretary-General

Prior to today, Thailand’s last execution was carried out on 24 August 2009, when two men, Bundit Jaroenwanit, 45, and Jirawat Poompreuk, 52, were put to death by lethal injection with just one-hour’s notice at Bang Khwang Prison, located just north of Bangkok. The two had been convicted of drug trafficking on 29 March 2001. Thailand would have achieved the status of de facto abolitionist, had it not carried out any executions before 24 August 2019.

“Today marks the latest unenviable achievement for Thailand under the rule of the military junta. The hurried resumption of executions after almost nine years shows that complete abolition is never achieved while capital punishment remains on the books.” -- Danthong Breen, UCL Senior Advisor

The Department of Correction’s announcement of Mr. Theerasak’s execution justified the resumption of the death penalty by grouping Thailand with the United States and China (the world’s top executioner) as countries that focus on “protecting society and the general public from crimes more than focusing on the rights and freedoms of wrongdoers.”

As of April 2018, there were 517 prisoners (415 men and 102 women) under death sentence in Thailand. Forty-eight percent of the men and 93% percent of the women were sentenced to death for drug-related offenses.

FIDH and UCL urge Thailand to immediately halt all executions, announce an official moratorium on capital punishment, sign and ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, and vote in favor of a resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in December 2018.

FIDH, a member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP), and UCL reiterate their strong opposition to the death penalty for all crimes and in all circumstances.

Source: FIDH, June 18, 2018

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

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

Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away. The curtain shrieked as it was yanked open to reveal a 67-year-old man tied to a chair. His arms were pulled uncomfortably behind his back. The red bull’s-eye target on his chest rose and fell as he desperately attempted to still his breathing. The man, Brad Sigmon, smiled at his attorney, Bo King, seated in the front row before guards placed a black bag over his head. King said Sigmon appeared to be trying his best to put on a brave face for those who had come to bear witness.

Florida executes Michael Tanzi

Florida on Tuesday executed a death row inmate described by one local detective as a "fledgling serial killer" for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee. Florida executed Michael Tanzi on Tuesday, 25 years after the murder of beloved Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta, who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break in 2000. Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET.

South Carolina | Man who ambushed off-duty cop to face firing squad in second execution of its kind

Mikal Mahdi, 48, who was found guilty of killing an off-duty police officer and a convenience store worker, is the second inmate scheduled to executed by South Carolina's new firing squad A murderer who ambushed and shot an off duty police officer eight times before burning his body in a killing spree is set to become the second person to die by firing squad. South Carolina's highest court has rejected the last major appeal from Mikal Mahdi, 41, who is to be put to death with three bullets to the heart at 6pm on April 11 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Mahdi's lawyers said his original lawyers put on a shallow case trying to spare his life that didn't call on relatives, teachers or people who knew him and ignored the impact of weeks spent in solitary confinement in prison as a teen.

Arizona | The cruelty of isolation: There’s nothing ‘humane’ about how we treat the condemned

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones.

Louisiana | Lawyers of Jessie Hoffman speak about their final moments before execution

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.

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.

'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.

Afghanistan | Four men publicly executed by Taliban with relatives of victims shooting them 'six or seven times' at sport stadium

Four men have been publicly executed by the Taliban, with relatives of their victims shooting them several times in front of spectators at a sport stadium. Two men were shot around six to seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Afghanistan's Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city. The men had been 'sentenced to retaliatory punishment' for shooting other men, after their cases were 'examined very precisely and repeatedly', the statement said. 'The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace but they refused.'

USA | Why the firing squad may be making a comeback

South Carolina plans to execute Mikal Mahdi on Friday for the murder of a police officer, draping a hood over his head and firing three bullets into his heart. The choice to die by firing squad – rather than lethal injection or the electric chair – was Mahdi’s own, his attorney said last month: “Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils.” If it proceeds, Mahdi’s execution would be the latest in a recent string of events that have put the spotlight on the firing squad as a handful of US death penalty states explore alternatives to lethal injection, by far the nation’s dominant execution method.

I spent 16 years in solitary in South Carolina. This is what it did to me. | Opinion

South Carolinian Randy Poindexter writes about the effects 16 years of solitary confinement had on him ahead of South Carolina’s planned execution of Mikal Mahdi , who spent months in solitary as a young man. For 16 years, I lived in a concrete cell. Twenty-three hours a day, every day, for more than 3,000 days, South Carolina kept me in solitary confinement. I was a young man before I was sent to solitary — angry, untreated and unwell. I made mistakes. But I wasn’t sentenced to madness. That’s what solitary did to me. My mental health worsened with each passing day. At first, paranoia and depression set in. Then, hallucinations and self-mutilation. I talked to people who weren’t there. I cut myself to feel something besides despair. I could do nothing as four of my friends and fellow prisoners took their own lives rather than endure another day of torturous isolation.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog