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Impact Assessment of Death Penalty Imposition
Impact Assessment of Death Penalty Imposition
The revival of death penalty is a recent report that explores the prospect
of re-establishing capital punishment. Our present administration under
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, had said he would be “happy to slaughter”
drug addicts, and since he took office in June, some 7,000 people have been
killed in drug-related operations, according to the Philippine National Police.
Now he proposes to reinstate the death penalty, which was abolished here in
2006.
With Congress now back in session, the proposal could pass the full
House of Representatives in a matter of weeks. To become law, the bill would
then have to be approved by the Senate and be signed by the president.
Just a year after the late President Ferdinand Marcos’s ouster in 1986,
the Philippines became the first country in Asia to abolish capital punishment.
The death penalty was reinstated in 1993, in response to the perception that
crime was on the rise. It was abolished again in 2006, after a sustained
campaign by a broad coalition including the Catholic Church and human rights
groups. In 2007, the Philippines ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, committing itself under
international law to renounce capital punishment.
And the Philippines’s previous experiences with the death penalty show
that its application has been excessive, ridden with errors and unfair to
marginalized populations.
1
Death sentences were handed out liberally in the past. Thanks to
lobbying by the Church and others, only a few executions took place, but in
2006, when capital punishment was abolished (again), at least 1,200
individuals were on death row in the Philippines.
Background
The death penalty has been a controversial and a debatable issue for
centuries. People have been sentenced to capital punishment since the
beginning of civilization. It has been accepted as fair punishment by
governmental bodies. Over time, capital punishment has become more human
going from beheadings, to electric chairs, to now a lethal injection. The issue
with the death penalty is that some people think it is inhumane or immoral,
even unconstitutional, while others think the exact opposite and believe that
it is necessary for a well-established governmental system.
The death penalty in the Philippines can be traced back in the history
from 1848 to 1987. Noticeable reasons of its imposition in the past were to
curtail the liberties, freedoms and rights of the Filipino people.
2
President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino (1986-1992)
Abolished the death penalty under the 1987 Constitution.
3
At a press conference at the Liberal Party's 65th anniversary,
Aquino said he will study emerging calls to reimpose the death
penalty, "but the essence here is our judicial system is not
perfect."
The Senate Bill 2383 filed by Senator Miguel Zubiri specifically cited the
August 23 Manila hostage tragedy that killed at least eight people; the
kidnapping incident that killed a Korean pastor on the same day; the August
5 bombing of the Zamboanga airport that left two people dead; the August 6
massacre of a retired navy official and his family; and the November 2009
Maguindanao massacre where 57 people were killed.5 However, this did not
prosper.
The House Bill 01 “An act imposing the death penalty on certain
heinous crimes, repealing for the purpose of RA 9346, entitled “an
Act prohibiting the death penalty in the Philippines” and Amending
Act No. 3185 as amended, otherwise known as the ‘Revised Penal
Code”, and other special laws”.6
4
Analysis
Use of the death penalty for drug offenses is declining around the world.
It remains in routine use by only seven countries (six of which are in
Asia, the other being Saudi Arabia).10
8. https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/12/02/letter-philippines-congress-death-penalty
9. https://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr2015/World_Drug_Report_2015.pdf
10.
https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/asia_death_penalty_drug_crimes_fidh_wcadp_report_
oct_2015_pdf.
5
Wrongful Convictions and Innocence
The High Commissioner for Human Rights consistently advocates for the
universal abolition of the death penalty, under her mandate to promote and
protect the enjoyment and full realization of all human rights. In a statement
issued in 2009, the High Commissioner recalled the reasons for her opposition
to the death penalty in all circumstances, including the fundamental nature of
the right to life, the unacceptable risk of executing innocent people by
mistake, the absence of proof that the death penalty serves as a deterrent,
and the inappropriately vengeful character of the sentence (A/HRC/15/19,
paragraph 7). The panel discussed the constitutional, institutional, and
structural obstacles to the fair and accurate administration of the death
penalty. What struck many was the growing evidence in the United States of
miscarriages of justice in murder cases, including death penalty cases. While
the United States was seen as a highly developed legal system, with multiple
judicial safeguards, at both the state and federal level, these safeguards in
some instances failed to provide adequate oversight of death penalty
convictions. It was unclear to what extent some of the structural problems in
the administration of capital punishment could be remedied at all.14
14. Moving-Away from Death Penalty, United Nations Human Rights Office of the
High Commissioner, Retrieved from
http://www.ohchr.org/Lists/MeetingsNY/Attachments/27/moving_away_from_death_penalt
y_web.pdf
6
Top 10 Pros and Cons: Should the death penalty be allowed?16
Cons
1. Morality
2. Constitutionality
3. Deterrence
4. Retribution
5. Irrevocable Mistakes
Pros
Death Penalty will reduce the number of crime rate in the country
because criminals will just be taking advantage of people without harsh
punishments.
It is what hardened criminals deserve. Criminals become
bolder and careless to commit crimes knowing that they will only be
imprisoned that are why they are not scared of repeating heinous
crimes. Thus, these types of people should be put to death to project
the majority.
7
Death penalty is just punishable to drug related crimes only, which
was stated under the House Bill Number 4727. However, President
Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte wants plunder, rape to be next in line among
the heinous crimes punishable with death penalty.
Pro death penalty believed that feeding the inmates is much more
expensive than death penalty. On contrary to that, Anti- death penalty
believes that the drug used in lethal injection and other expenses related
to execution is much more costly.
Death penalty is a form of revenge.
While pro death penalty thinks that capital punishment is a form of death
retribution, Anti-death penalty also believes that to avenge a crime
committed by individual may be understandable yet killing someone is
also unconstitutional. It is also a crime that is only masked by the term
capital punishment but the reality is, it only continues the series of
violence.
8
Crimes punishable by death under this Act are heinous
for being grievous, odious and hateful offenses and
which, by reason of their inherent or manifest
wickedness, viciousness, atrocity and perversity are
repugnant and outrageous to the common standards
and norms of decency and morality in a just, civilized
and ordered society.18
18. http://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra1993/ra_7659_1993.html
9
B. REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8203: AN ACT OF PROHIBITING COUNTERFEIT
DRUGS, PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS AND
APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFORE
19.http://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/text.jsp?file_id=229058#LinkTarget_164
10
C. REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8177: AN ACT DESIGNATING DEATH BY LETHAL
INJECTION AS THE METHOD OF CARRYING OUT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT,
AMENDING FOR THE PURPOSE ARTICLE 81 OF THE REVISED PENAL
CODE, BY SECTION 24 OF REPUBLIC ACT NO. 7659
A. China
Lethal injection was legalized in 1996 and has been used since the
late 1990s.
China has remained as the world’s top executioner with the figure
of one thousand and six hundred thirty-four (1,634) excludes the
thousands of executions believed to have been carried out in
China.
20. http://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra1996/ra_8177_1996.html
11
B. Iran
C. Pakistan
D. Saudi Arabia
12
E. United States of America
13
ARTICLES AND STUDIES ON DEATH PENALTY
26. Sage Journals, Art. VIII, Nos. 1, 3 and 8, Psychological Studies on Death Penalty
14
Variables, characteristics, causes and effects of death penalty have been
widely discussed all over the world. As for the Philippines, under the
administration of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, this has started in a press
conference after he was declared winner of the May 9 presidential elections,
he said he would reintroduce capital punishment and give security forces
“shoot-to-kill” orders in his war against crime, and he will urge Congress to
restore the death penalty by hanging.
Policy Options
Life without parole also costs a lot less and allows for mistakes to
be corrected. Overall, we feel like the death penalty has a lot of
negative sides and no positive ones, and while life without parole
is not a perfect solution, it certainly beats the alternative.
27. https://oadp.org/facts/alternatives-death-penalty
15
These life-sentence alternatives are sufficient to hold offenders
accountable and to protect society from further harm at their hands.
Recommendation
Conclusion
Life and long-term prisoners are often subjected to worse conditions and
treatment than other prisoners. The conditions are often highly restrictive and
damaging to physical and mental health, with no effort or willingness to invest
in rehabilitation or to consider alternative sanctions or early release. The
length of their sentences can mean that prison authorities do not see the value
in providing rehabilitative programmes for life or long-term prisoners, as it will
be many years or decades before they are released, if at all.
28. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/life-without-parole
16
However, such attitudes ignore the fact that keeping people in prison
for years with no meaningful activity will make it harder for them to
reintegrate or benefit from such programmes at a late stage of their sentence.
It also risks damaging the mental health and wellbeing of the prisoner. Being
sentenced to prison is punishment in itself: the conditions of imprisonment
and the treatment received in prison must not amount to further punishment.
It is best if the State will provide them meaningful activities during their
imprisonment. Activities which do not give condemnation to them, but
betterment of their physical, mental and spiritual beings and needs.
We are one, we all belong in one state. When this state kills, we are
participants. Would you choose to be a participant of turning on the switch
that snuffs out human life?
17
Death Penalty on Society
Free legal assistance group has shown that 73% of the offenders receive
earnings of PHP 10,000 below. These people are shown to be vulnerable for
wrong convictions.
200%
150%
100%
50%
0%
18
The reports found that due to poor record-keeping and police
procedures, several death-row inmates, an equal of 65% had been minors at
the time of their alleged crimes.
19