Capital punishment

Take a position on capital punishment and argue either for or against it while explaining
your principle and application to this issue

1. intro
a)definition
Background of capital punishment in Malaysia (now)
-The government will suggest to abolish mandatory death penalty and replace with the death
penalty on the court’s discretion

-The first option is for the “total abolition” of the death penalty for 33 criminal offences covered in
eight Acts and replacing it with life imprisonment instead.
-The second option is for the removal of the mandatory death sentence
-the third option is removal of the discretionary powers of the court under the Dangerous Drugs
Act.

b)method of capital punishment

-lethal injection
-lethal gas
-Beheading
-firing squad
-electrocution
-hanging(Malaysia)

c)which act and offens?

-Capital punishment is provided for in 6 laws for more than 20 offenses, it is mandatory for 6
offenses.

Crimes punishable by death in Malaysia:

-Murder
-Drug trafficking
-Treason
-Waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (the King)
-Terrorism
-Kidnapping or abducting in order to murder
-Possession of Firearms
-Abetting Mutiny (Armed Forces)
-Hostage taking

Mandatory death penalty:

-Offences against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Ruler or Yang di-Pertua Negeri
-Committing terrorist acts
-Directing activities of terrorists groups
-Providing or collecting property for terrorist acts
-Providing services for terrorist purposes
-Accepting gratification to facilitate or enable terrorists acts
-Accepting gratification to facilitate or enable organised criminal activity
-Punishment for murder
-hostage-taking
Exception for death penalty
- prohibit the execution of pregnant women,minors under 18, and mentally ill
- juvenile offenders would be detained at the pleasure of the Ruler, Governor or Yang di-
Pertuan Agong

d)cases in malaysia
Malaysia commuted the death sentences of 165 people who had been sent to death row from
2007 to 2017. During the same time, 35 executions took place. As of June 2018, 1,267 are
people on death row.

2. Argument about capital punishment

- To prevent future murder
- Not effective as a crime prevention measure
- human rights
- put innocent lives at risk
- Retribution

3. Case study
a) Zhang Yingying case
-Brendt Christensen kidnapped Zhang Yingying ,beat her to death with a baseball bat and
decapitated her.
-he told his girlfriend Zhang was her 13th victim.(An FBI agent during the trial said authorities
have not yet been able to corroborate that Christensen killed another 12 victims but also haven’t
ruled it out)
-A 12-person jury failed to reach a unanimous decision in the death-penalty case. Instead, the
judge officially imposed a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release.
-Some jurors felt it was relevant Christensen had been taking alcohol and anti-depressants,
which they felt could “result in serious side effects.”
*The jury’s vote had to be unanimous to make him eligible for the death penalty.*
https://news.wttw.com/2019/07/18/brendt-christensen-sentenced-life-yingying-zhang-killing

b) Ng yuk ting case(cosplay killer)

-Poon Wai Hong was sentenced to death for murdering a 15-year-old co splay fan,Ng Yuk Ting
-his murder charge was reduced to one of culpable homicide not amounting to murder
-Poon should instead be sentenced to 22 years' jail start from the date of his arrest on Oct 22,
2013
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/malaysian-cosplay-death-penalty-jail-teenage-girl-
murder-11899942

c) Chee Gaik Yap case

-Shahril Jaafar was sentenced to death for murdering of Chee Gaik Yap
-In June 2014, the High Court acquitted Shahril as the prosecution failed to establish a prima
facie case.
-However, in November that year, the Court of Appeal set aside the High Court’s decision and
ordered Shahril to enter his defence.
*death penalty is currently suspended from being carried out due to the abolishment*
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/01/25/businessman-to-hang/
d) Hoo Yew Wah(drug trafficker)
-Hoo Yew Wah was sentenced to mandatory death penalty for trafficking 188.35gm of
methamphetamine
-His April 2014 petition for a pardon to the Sultan of Johor State, where the offence took place,
remained pending.
https://www.amnesty.my/hoo-yew-wah-seeking-clemancy-from-sultan-of-johor/

e)Karthigesu (wrong accused murder)

-Karthigesu was given a mandatory death sentence for murdering Jean
- four days after Karthigesu’s conviction ,the main prosecution witness, Jayatilake, retract his
original statement.He lied.
- Karthigesu was set free.
https://www.worldofbuzz.com/40-years-ago-today-the-tragic-murder-of-a-msian-ex-beauty-queen-
that-was-never-solved/
DATA

Malaysia also ranked fourth in the region for the most number of prisoners still awaiting
execution, at 1,275 people ― even though capital punishment is now on hold pending changes
to the law.

According to Amnesty, out of those sentenced to hang in Malaysia last year, seven in 10 were
for drug-related offences.

More data:
https://penanginstitute.org/publications/issues/high-incidence-of-judicial-errors-in-capital-punishment-
cases-in-malaysia/
One of the case that happened in Malaysia is the cosplay killer case. A 15 years old cosplayer was raped
and killed by Poon. But the killer was not sentence to capital punishment because his charge was reduce
to one of culpable homicide and not amounting to murder. The punishment for him is sentence to jail
for 22 years staring on the day he was been arrest. This means that he will be released 15 years later.
Most of the people are not satisfied with this result because they think he didn’t get the punishment
unless he was sentence to death.
The next case is chee gaik yap case, the murderer was sentence to death penalty 2014 but because of
the abolishment of death penalty in Malaysia, death penalty in now suspended and he might been
escaped from death penalty and sentence to life imprisonment. Victims family was very angry and they
feel that it is unfair for them and for their daughter because the case happens 13 ago and waited for 13
years and hope that the murderer will get his punishment which is death penalty.
Based on utilitarism theory, they view capital punishment as moral, they stand for capital punishment.
They think capital punishment is to prevent future murderer and it is a justice to the victims family. But
is capital punishment a suitable and efficient way to prevent the next murderer? Did we solve any
problem after taking the murderer life? There is always the next murderer and the next cosplay killer.
This doesn’t mean that people don’t need to get punish for what they have done, they still need to bee
punish, but not taking their life.
As what we said in the beginning, drug trafficking is the most of offences to death penalty in Malaysia.
One of the case is Hoo Yew Wah, he was sentence to mandatory death penalty due to drug trafficking.
He request for pardon from Sultan of johor, but his request was still pending.
The next case is the wrong accused murderer, karthingesu was a suspect of a murdering case and she
was sentence to mandatory death penalty because of the statement by a witness. But the witness lied
about his statement during the court, so karthingesu was set free after the witness admit that he lied.
One of the reason that people are against death penalty is because there might be the innocent ones.
Not only death penalty, this also happens when we sentence a criminal to jail. If they were proved as
innocent after staying 5 years in jail, the lost their 5 years life in jail. This is not only about their time but
also their jobs, their health and relationship. Even more, a people who lost his life by death penalty and
proved that he was innocent after losing their life. Noting can make him back.