LEGAL REVIEW
BY
NUR ASMI T FACULTY OF LAW HASANUDDIN UNIVERSITY
DEATH PENALTY Death penalty existence, no doubt, raising a question over the right of person’s life as mention “everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” Death penalty exists due to various reasons, example as deterrence effect for criminals, eye for an eye,shock therapy for society, even to impose law in federal states. Debate over pros and cons over death penalty has come to a new level. Countries seem more engaging with death penalty as ultimate punishment, by rapidly constitute death penalty to be legally prevail. In conducting the death penalty,various countries have different method to execute the criminals. Execution methods
“Execution of those who have committed heinous murders may deter only one murder per year. If it does, it seems quite warranted. It is also the only fitting retribution for murder I can think of.” There are many and varied types of execution used around the world today, most common practices are : • Gas Chamber “….The sensation is similar to the pain felt by a person during a heart attack, where essentially the heart is being deprived of oxygen.” The inmate dies from hypoxia, the cutting-off of oxygen to the brain.” • Electrocution Usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrocuted head and legs. • Hanging Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is “specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck”, though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain “hanging”.
• Lethal injection …Many prisoners have damaged veins resulting from intravenous drug use and it is sometimes difficult to find a usable vein, resulting in long delays while the inmate remains strapped to the gurney….
• Shooting in the back of the head and by firing squad ..”The person shot loses consciousness when shock causes a fall in the supply of blood to the brain. If the shooters miss the heart, by accident or intention, the prisoner bleeds to death slowly.”
In practical, it has been found that execution method has extended into various way from society doubt whether ‘criminal’ has legitimately proven guilty until the practice of execution.
Problem that frequently occur in execution may be fatally loses the ‘criminal’, simply because execution is the ultimate, the risk of executing an innocent person can never be eliminated. Since 1973,for example, 150 US prisoners sent to death row have later been exonerated. Others have been executed despite serious doubts about their guilt. Some countries execute people who were under 18 years old when the crime was committed, others use the death penalty against people who suffer mental problems. Before people die they are often imprisoned for years on “death row”. Not knowing when their time is up, or whether they will see their families one last time.
Other execution case,once a key figure in the North Korean regime, Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of supreme leader Kim Jong-un, has been executed according to an announcement from state media. The former protector of the country’s elite joins 105 other individuals to have been executed between 2007 and 2012 according to Amnesty International figures. The decision comes in the same week that two men were hanged in Japan, sparking renewed controversy about the country’s ‘secret’ executions.
In other part of the world, it has been known public executions to have been carried out in Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Somalia. A public execution is a form of capital punishment in which “members of the general public may voluntarily attend”. The standard definition normally excludes the presence of a limited number of “passive citizens” that “witness the event to assure executive accountability” Otherwise,Supreme Court allowed the execution of 16- and 17-year-olds, no state which had an age limit of 18 has sentenced anyone to death younger than that age In October 2008, a girl, Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow was buried up to her neck at a football stadium, then stoned to death in front of more than 1,000 people. The stoning occurred after she had allegedly pleaded guilty to adultery in ashariah court in Kismayo,Somalia.
From various cases,it has been found that method of execution were intended to treat criminals inhumanely before to their death to be subject of mockery even degrade their dignity.
CONCLUSION
Supreme Court decision to allow execution clearly backlash with ICCPR that sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age…… and even American Convention on Human Rights that “Capital punishment shall not be imposed upon persons who, at the time the crime was committed, were under 18 years of age or over 70 years of age…….” . For Somalian case, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child states: “The death sentence shall not be pronounced for crimes committed by children”. This treaty specifies that the term “child” refers to anyone under the age of 18.Yet the method “stoning” shall be abolished under UN Human Rights Committee instruction in abolition in law of the penalty of death by stoning.
Relevant to public execution, The UN Human Rights Committee has stated: “Public executions are… incompatible with human dignity.” Therefore practices of public execution should be abolished.
From applied convention, judicial decision, etc it may explicit and implicitly picturize the standard before and until execution process to convince that criminal is proven guilty and deserve to be treated fairly before their death as follows :
The subject of criminals should be 18 years age and above,not over 70 years of age, pregnant woman and mental disorder The execution should be transparent, not to be broadcasted through the public,but instead,there shall be representative of highly respected/figures of society to put in the process of execution to ensure the execution to proceed as planned and structurized. The method of the execution should be internationally recognized method that efficiently execute the criminals, and has highly success rate in directly “killing” the criminal in less pain and fast before to their death according to OHCHR on Safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty,it shall be carried out so as to inflict the minimum possible suffering. In relevance with the proceeding of execution method, any responsible supervisor outside of the country that maintain death penalty may report if the execution contravene with convention ratified, treaties or any related agreement with purpose to immediately take an action to accused country. BIBILOGRAPHY David Garland,Why Does The U.S Have Capital Punishment ?,Embassy of United Stated of America:1 Ernest van den Haag, The Ultimate Punishment: A Defense, Harvard Law Review Association, 1986 J. Weisberg, “This is Your Death,” The New Republic, July 1, 1991. Blum, Steven A. (Winter 1992). “Public Executions: Understand the “Cruel and Unusual Punishments” Clause”. Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly 19 (2): 415. W. Ecenbarger, “Perfecting Death: When the state kills it must do so humanely. Is that possible?,” The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, January 23, 1994. H. Hillman, “The Possible Pain Experienced During Executions by Different Methods,” 22 Perception 745 (1992)