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

Singapore executes three drug mules over two days

Singapore hanged three people for drug offences last week, bringing the total number of executions to 17 this year - the highest since 2003. These come a week before a constitutional challenge against the death penalty for drug offences is due to be heard. Singapore has some of the world's harshest anti-drug laws, which it says are a necessary deterrent to drug crime, a major issue elsewhere in South East Asia. Anyone convicted of trafficking - which includes selling, giving, transporting or administering - more than 15g of diamorphine, 30g of cocaine, 250g of methamphetamine and 500g of cannabis in Singapore will be handed the death sentence.

Florida | After nearly 50 years on death row, Tommy Zeigler seeks final chance at freedom

The Winter Garden Police chief was at a party on Christmas Eve 1975 when he received a phone call from his friend Tommy Zeigler, the owner of a furniture store on Dillard Street. “I’ve been shot, please hurry,” Zeigler told the chief as he struggled for breath. When police arrived at the store, Zeigler, 30, managed to unlock the door and then collapsed “with a gaping bullet hole through his lower abdomen,” court records show. In the store, detectives found a gruesome, bloody crime scene and several guns. Four other people — Zeigler’s wife, his in-laws and a laborer — lay dead.

Louisiana death row inmate freed after nearly 30 years as overturned conviction upends case

A Louisiana man who spent nearly 30 years on death row walked out of prison Wednesday after a judge overturned his conviction and granted him bail. Jimmie Duncan, now in his 60s, was sentenced to death in 1998 for the alleged rape and drowning of his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter, Haley Oliveaux — a case long clouded by disputed forensic testimony. His release comes months after a state judge ruled that the evidence prosecutors used to secure the conviction was unreliable and rooted in discredited bite-mark analysis.

Oklahoma board recommends clemency for inmate set to be executed next week

A voting board in Oklahoma decided Wednesday to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, a death row inmate who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week at the state penitentiary in McAlester. Wood, 46, faces execution for his conviction in the 2001 murder of Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker, at an Oklahoma City hotel on New Year's Eve, court records show. The recommendation was decided in a 3-2 vote by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, consisting of five members appointed by either the governor or the state's top judicial official, according to CBS News affiliate KWTV. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt will consider the recommendation as he weighs whether to grant or deny Wood's clemency request, which would mean sparing him from execution and reducing his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Vietnam | Woman sentenced to death for poisoning 4 family members with cyanide

A woman in Dong Nai Province in southern Vietnam was sentenced to death on Thursday for killing family members including two young children in a series of cyanide poisonings that shocked her community. The Dong Nai People's Court found 39-year-old Nguyen Thi Hong Bich guilty of murder and of illegally possessing and using toxic chemicals. Judges described her actions as "cold-blooded, inhumane and calculated," saying Bich exploited the trust of her victims and "destroyed every ethical bond within her family."

Afghanistan | Two Sons Of Executed Man Also Face Death Penalty, Says Taliban

The Taliban governor’s spokesperson in Khost said on Tuesday that two sons of a man executed earlier that day have also been sentenced to death. Their executions, he said, have been postponed because the heir of the victims is not currently in Afghanistan. Mostaghfer Gurbaz, spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Khost, also released details of the charges against the man executed on Tuesday, identified as Mangal. He said Mangal was accused of killing members of a family.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers carry out public execution in sports stadium

The man had been convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including children, and was executed by one of their relatives, according to police. Afghanistan's Taliban authorities carried out the public execution of a man on Tuesday convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including several children, earlier this year. Tens of thousands of people attended the execution at a sports stadium in the eastern city of Khost, which the Supreme Court said was the eleventh since the Taliban seized power in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO forces.

Utah | Ralph Menzies dies on death row less than 3 months after his execution was called off

Judge was set to consider arguments in December about Menzies’ mental fitness Ralph Menzies, who spent more than 3 decades on Utah’s death row for the 1986 murder of Maurine Hunsaker, has died. Menzies, 67, died of “presumed natural causes at a local hospital” Wednesday afternoon, according to the Utah Department of Corrections. Matt Hunsaker, Maurine Hunsaker’s son, said Menzies’ death “was a complete surprise.” “First off, I’d say that I’m numb. And second off, I would say, grateful,” Hunsaker told Utah News Dispatch. “I’m grateful that my family does not have to endure this for the holidays.”

Iran carries out public hanging of "double-rapist"

Iran on Tuesday publicly executed a man after convicting him of raping two women in the northern province of Semnan. The execution was carried out in the town of Bastam after the Supreme Court upheld the verdict, the judiciary's official outlet Mizan Online reported. Mizan cited the head of the provincial judiciary, Mohammad Akbari, as saying the ruling had been 'confirmed and enforced after precise review by the Supreme Court'. The provincial authority said the man had 'deceived two women and committed rape by force and coercion', adding that he used 'intimidation and threats' to instil fear of reputational harm in the victims.

Burkina Faso to bring back death penalty

Burkina Faso's military rulers will bring back the death penalty, which was abolished in 2018, the country's Council of Ministers announced on Thursday. "This draft penal code reinstates the death penalty for a number of offences, including high treason, acts of terrorism, acts of espionage, among others," stated the information service of the Burkinabe government. Burkina Faso last carried out an execution in 1988.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog