KUALA LUMPUR: The court should consider the seriousness of the offence committed before substituting the death penalty with life imprisonment.
Malaysian Bar president George Varughese said only then will the punishment be both just and effective.
Varughese said death sentences should be commuted to imprisonment sentences that are proportionate to the gravity of the offences.
“The court must take into consideration mitigating factors and distinctive circumstances of each case, such as the offender’s age, past criminal record, role played in the offence, mental capacity, reparation made, fear of another person, use of violence, harm done to property or person, rehabilitation goals, degree of cooperation with the authorities and remorse shown by the offender.
“Only then will the punishment meted out be both just and effective,” he said when contacted by the New Straits Times Press.
Varughese said the Bar had consistently advocated for the total abolition of the death penalty not just for cases where it was mandatory to pass the death sentence but also in cases where the courts had the discretion to impose capital punishment.
He said this in response to the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law) Datuk Liew Vui Keong’s announcement that the death penalty will be replaced with a sentence of minimum 30 years jail.
Criminal lawyer Datuk Hariharan Tara Singh said he was also in favour of the death penalty being abolished if the penalty was replaced with a minimum 30 years’ jail time.
He said the principal of sentencing was to rehabilitate the offender.
“How can you rehabilitate a person if he is gone? The idea of sentencing is to correct the person and to bring him back to the right path.
“Through basic reasoning I think a person who has already spent at least 30 years behind bars would probably not commit crime due to age factor,” he said, adding that the human life was said to be sacred.
Meanwhile, lawyer Farhan Read said he welcomed the announcment saying that he believed the move would engender renewed interest and investment in the reformation of offenders as members of society.
“Why is death penalty cruel? Because I believe in the essential good in man.
“I believe that although bad men may re-enter society after the abolition of the death penalty, many more would have found their penance and seek to make up for the lost time by becoming better members of society,” he said.
Yesterday Liew announced that the death penalty will be replaced with a sentence of minimum 30 years jail time.
He said in the proposed amendment to Section 39 (B) of the Dangerous Drug Act 1952, for instance, where a convicted offender was subjected to the mandatory death sentence, in addition there were 17 other criminal offences that imposed the same sentence.
These offences included waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, terrorism, murder, attempted murder during a life imprisonment, killing victims during kidnapping, possessing and using firearms as well as rape leading to death and rape of minors.