Pakistan: 7-judge bench to decide span of life sentence

A 7-judge bench of the Supreme Court (SC) – led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa – will, on October 2, decide the duration of the span of life imprisonment in Pakistan.

The three-judge bench, led by CJP Khosa, while hearing a matter on July 29 questioned whether life imprisonment meant imprisonment of a convict for his remaining biological life or anything shorter than that – and if so, whether different sentences of imprisonment for life passed in the same case or different cases were to run concurrently or consecutively.

“The question has appeared to us to be a question of immense public importance affecting a larger number of cases in the country,” said CJP Khosa.

The court has also issued a notice to the attorney general for Pakistan (AGP), advocate generals and prosecutor generals to assist in the matter.

Members of the bench, hailing from 3 provinces, include Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Faisal Arab, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed. All members have expertise in criminal law.

According to sources, the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) is also considering becoming a party in this case.

A PBC executive member said the bar council wants to assist the SC in this matter as lawyers are not in favour of any interpretation, suggesting that life imprisonment means imprisonment of a convict for his remaining biological life.

Likewise, a convict Khadija Shah, a British national, has also filed an application through his counsel Raheel Kamran Sheikh to become party in the case.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Sheikh said any interpretation of the sentence of “imprisonment for life” as incarceration for the remaining biological life of a convict would be unconstitutional and violative of the fundamental rights enshrined in Articles 9, 14 and 25, besides being in contrast with the judicial history on the subject.

Currently, the sentence of life imprisonment corresponds to a maximum imprisonment of 25 years, and a minimum of 15 years (per Rule 140 of the Pakistan Prison Rules 1978); after earning remissions as may be extended by the executive functionaries from time to time but subject to Section 401 CrPC, Rule 216 and Rule 218 of the Pakistan Prison Rules, 1978.

The jail manual also provides for at least a 14-year substantive period for those sentenced to life imprisonment. Section 57 of the Criminal Procedure Code stipulates that life imprisonment will be 25 years.

The CJP had hinted at interpreting the ambiguity of the life sentence while hearing review appeal of a death row convict, Abdul Qayyum. During the hearing, Justice Khosa had remarked that the current interpretation of life imprisonment law was flawed. Referring to judicial practice in India, the chief justice remarked that life sentences in India are given after specifying the period of imprisonment.

“The span of life imprisonment is regarded as limited to 25 years, while it is meant to last a lifetime. The court would thoroughly interpret the law at an appropriate time. Once it happens, convicts will ask for a death sentence instead of life imprisonment,” CJP Khosa had said during the June hearing.

“In India, they clearly mention the number of years a convict has to stay in prison,” he added.

In 2012, the Supreme Court of India said that life imprisonment implied a jail term for the convict’s entire life.

The apex court had also noted that its constitutional bench’s landmark judgment of 1980 on the criterion for imposing death penalty needed a “fresh look” as there had been “no uniformity” in following its principles on what constitutes “the rarest of rare” cases.

“It appears to us there is a misconception that a prisoner serving a life sentence has an indefeasible right to be released on completion of either 14 years or 20 years imprisonment. The prisoner has no such right,” said judgment issued by SC of India published in an Indian newspaper.

“A convict undergoing life imprisonment is expected to remain in custody till the end of his life, subject to any remission granted by the appropriate government,” a bench of Justices KS Radhakrishnan and Madan B Lokur said.

The bench, however, clarified that under remission, the appropriate government cannot reduce the period of a sentence less than 14 years for a life convict.

“In the case of a convict undergoing life imprisonment, he will be in custody for an indeterminate period.”

Source: tribune.com.pk, Staff, September 29, 2019

More than life

A life sentence in Pakistan is counted as 14 years. Wajih-ul-Hassan has served far more than that. In 2002, he was condemned to death in a blasphemy case and has remained behind bars since then, for 18 years facing not only imprisonment but also the constant threat of being walked to the gallows. He is now suddenly free.

A three judge bench headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah exonerated Wajih from blasphemy and ordered his release.

The court observed there was insufficient proof that he had written blasphemous letters; it had been alleged that at the time Wajih was held, letters had been written to a senior lawyer, Ismail Qureshi. The lawyer had filed a petition before the Federal Shariat Court, asking it to make death penalty the only punishment for blasphemy. The lawyers argued that this had angered Wajih.

The details involved handwriting analysis, the question of Wajih’s religion, the fact that the letters were burnt by the lawyer as he considered them too sacrilegious and other matters. But what is significant is that a man had so many years of his life taken away from him on a charge that he had not committed.

There are others in the same situation. Junaid Hafeez, a visiting lecturer in English at the Bahauddin Zakariya University, has already served 12 years in jail without even the first phase of his case before a trial court having been completed. He was accused by a student of committing blasphemy. There are others like Junaid.

To make matters worse, radical television hosts have urged students to capture on video any teacher who utters blasphemy, presumably so that they can be arrested and penalised. There are multiple cases of people being jailed for blasphemy on flimsy grounds, often to settle petty scores or business disputes. It is also true some have been killed in jail or later when returned to their villages after being freed.

The situation is an extremely grave one. It is vital the state looks at how it administers the blasphemy law so that innocent people cannot so easily be victimised.

The case of Aasia Bibi made international headlines recently. Pakistan needs to review the way the blasphemy law is used in order to spare people so much suffering.

Source: thenews.com.pk, Editorial, September 29, 2019

⚑ | 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

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 executes Mikal Mahdi

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog