Malaysia | Resentencing Process Must Be A Fair And Meaningful Opportunity For Commutation Of Death Sentences

On 16 June 2023, the government of Malaysia published in the official gazette two laws to repeal the mandatory death penalty and establish a resentencing process for those under the sentence of death and imprisonment for natural life.

As the laws are about to come into force, Amnesty International Malaysia calls on the government to ensure the strictest observance of all fair trial guarantees and international safeguards in the forthcoming resentencing process, including by providing clarity on the process as a matter of urgency.

The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 and the Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction of The Federal Court) Act 2023 obtained royal assent on 9 June and were published in the Federal Gazette on 16 June. The laws will come into force at a date to be announced by the Minister of Law, at which point, a 90-day period will begin, to allow those sentenced to death or imprisonment for natural life with their sentences already confirmed by the Federal Court, to apply for resentencing. Those still undergoing trial and appeals will have a chance to request the commutation of their sentences as part of the ordinary court process.

“It is imperative that there is absolute clarity on the resentencing process and how judges will exercise discretion. The lack of information thus far exacerbates already high levels of anxiety for those on death row and their families who have been in limbo for many months already,”, Katrina Jorene Maliamauv, Executive Director of Amnesty International Malaysia, said.

Amnesty International Malaysia is concerned that the lack of a clearly defined process in the law, coupled with limited resources in the criminal justice system, could result in a resentencing process riddled with violations of the right to a fair trial, failing its purpose to deliver fair and meaningful reviews of death sentences.

“The resentencing process is a last chance to life for hundreds of people on death row. The Malaysian authorities must ensure that the resentencing is in line with international fair trial standards and other safeguards of due process. Failing to do so would result in a process that not only further penalizes those who have been already at greater risk of the death penalty – including because of their disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds or as foreign nationals – but would also undermine the judicial process as a meaningful safeguard against the arbitrary deprivation of life”, Katrina Jorene Maliamauv added.

Among other concerns, Amnesty International Malaysia has been calling on the government to ensure that those applying for resentencing have adequate time, resources, facilities, and language support to prepare for their resentencing hearings. Additionally, they must be provided with timely access to effective legal representation and have the ability to promptly access existing and new documentation to provide evidence of mitigating factors relating to the circumstances of the offences or their backgrounds. The authorities must ensure the right to appeal the decision; the right to be promptly informed in advance of when the resentencing request will be considered as well as the outcome of the procedure.

Additionally, the organization encourages the authorities of Malaysia to request regular reporting to Parliament on the implementation of the measures, so that any systemic issues arising from the process can promptly be assessed and addressed, including through further legislative action.

Amnesty International Malaysia also urges that the moratorium on executions, which has been in place since 2018, be maintained until the death penalty is fully abolished and all death sentences are commuted; and for whipping, which constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment and as such is prohibited under international law, to be repealed.

“The removal of the mandatory death penalty has been an important achievement, but it should not be the last. Malaysia can and must swiftly work towards ending this cruel, inhumane, and degrading punishment once and for all.” Katrina Jorene Maliamauv added.

Background

The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 and the Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction of The Federal Court) Act 2023– were adopted by the Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives) on 3 April and by the Dewan Negara (Senate) on 11 April.

In addition to repealing the mandatory death penalty and introducing sentencing discretion for all offenses for which it was applicable, they abolish the death penalty in full for seven offences.

An official moratorium on executions has been in place since July 2018, but the courts in Malaysia have continued to sentence countless people to death.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime, the guilt, innocence or other characteristics of the offender or the method used by the state to carry out the execution.

Source: Amnesty International, Staff, June 20, 2023

_____________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW US ON:

CONTACT: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com

"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 Set to Execute Man Who Said He Killed to Reach Death Row, Challenging Misconception that Death Penalty Deters Crime

Florida is scheduled to execute James Robertson at noon on Tuesday, October 13, at Florida State Prison. His execution remains scheduled despite the withdrawal of William Lee Thompson’s death warrant, which had called for a 2nd execution that evening. If completed, this will be Florida’s 17th execution of 2026. Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) and partners will be holding a series of vigils and demonstrations across the state.

Florida executes James Robertson

STARKE, Fla. — A Florida prisoner who said he killed his cellmate specifically to get on death row was executed Tuesday, nearly 18 years after the attack. James Robertson, 63, declined to offer any last words before receiving a three-drug injection and was pronounced dead about 10 minutes later. It was a stark contrast to the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee two weeks ago, where she was rushed to the hospital after surviving two lethal doses of pentobarbital.

Christa Pike: 4 Major Questions As She Returns to Death Row

As Christa Pike returns to death row after surviving Tennessee’s attempt to execute her, several questions remain about her case and what comes next. Pike, 50, was discharged from hospital and moved back to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, the women’s prison where she was housed for 30 years, her attorneys said on Saturday. She was hospitalized after surviving 2 doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital as Tennessee attempted to execute her on September 30. Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, her classmate at a Job Corps training program in Knoxville, Tennessee. Pike was 18 at the time.

Saudi Arabia executes two Bangladeshis over 'immoral act' inside mosque

Saudi Arabia has carried out the death penalty on two Bangladeshi nationals in Mecca. The country's Interior Ministry announced this in a statement on Wednesday. According to the report, they were sentenced over allegations of involvement in immoral acts inside a mosque in Mecca. The information was reported by Ajel News, citing the Saudi Interior Ministry's statement. The two Bangladeshis executed were a man and a woman, Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir and Sithi Akhter. The “immoral acts” referred to illicit heterosexual intercourse, not homosexual activity.

Christa Pike's Survival Wasn't a Miracle. That's What Should Scare Us.

What happened in Tennessee's execution chamber is one of the most common failures in medicine Christa Pike is awake. A week after Tennessee strapped her to a gurney and gave her two doses of pentobarbital , she is off the ventilator and speaking from a hospital bed, still shackled to it. Her lawyers call her recovery " medically unprecedented. " Legal scholars say she is the first person in American history to survive a lethal injection after the drug was actually given. I understand the impulse to make such claims. I consulted for Pike's legal team, but I have also spent three decades in operating rooms and intensive care units (ICUs), and I want to resist the word "unprecedented" and the word "miracle" that hovers just behind it.

Buffalo Tops shooter files last-minute bid to avoid death penalty

Payton Gendron, who is already serving life without parole for killing 10 Black people in a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket in 2022, is asking a federal judge to throw out the case that could send him to death row. Defense attorneys filed the motion Monday — a day before jury selection was scheduled to begin — seeking to dismiss Gendron’s federal indictment. They argued that Black residents are underrepresented in the jury pool for New York’s Western District, according to WIVB and WKBW.

USA | Firing squad execution to be livestreamed, Pentagon says

The public will be able to watch the execution of a former US Army major by firing squad, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said. A Defense Department official told the BBC the execution of Nidal Hasan, who shot dead 13 unarmed US soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, would be livestreamed. It is believed it would be the first public execution in the US in almost a century. The decision to livestream it is "unprecedented in the modern era" and "on uncertain legal terrain", said John Mills, a lawyer who works with inmates sentenced to death.

Tennessee | Christa Pike’s lawyer says she has not regained consciousness since her failed execution

Christa Pike has remained unconscious and on a ventilator at a hospital in the four days since her failed execution in Tennessee, and her prognosis might not be known for days more, one of her lawyers said Sunday. Little has been released about Pike’s condition since Wednesday night’s execution attempt. She has since remained hospitalized under guard as doctors try to get the massive dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital out of her system. When asked whether she ever regained consciousness after the execution attempt, Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell, Pike’s lawyer, said on CNN’s “State of the Union”: “Not that I am aware of.”

What Tennessee wants to do next to Christa Pike is beyond grim

Christa Pike, the woman who survived two execution attempts in Tennessee earlier this week, remains hospitalized in critical condition, where presumably medical staff is at work trying to keep her alive. If she wakes from the coma she had entered, Tennessee officials want to start anew to inject lethal drugs into her seemingly too-small veins to kill her and carry out the state death warrant. Pike also is being treated for “significant injuries to both arms” sustained when two lethal injections of pentobarbital failed to kill her. If she dies, there will be no need to try again. As we know by now, Tennessee tried to put Pike to death Wednesday night by lethal injection for a murder she committed when she was 18. She would have been the first woman executed in the state in 200 years.

Tennessee | Republicans legislature to investigate other execution methods after failed lethal injections

Republican leaders in Tennessee’s legislature say they will investigate the reliability of lethal injection as an execution method after the state failed to execute two death row inmates in the span of five months. Gov. Bill Lee stopped the May execution of Tony Carruthers after a physician unsuccessfully attempted to insert intravenous lines to begin the lethal injection process for over an hour. Death row inmate Christa Pike survived two failed rounds of Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol on Sept. 30 before the execution was halted. Pike, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, is receiving medical care in a Nashville hospital.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog