The death penalty should continue in Bangladesh

The opponents of capital punishment in Bangladesh are making their case by referring to examples that the developed world has been getting rid of this inhuman and cruel method. The US Supreme Court did prohibit the practice in 1972. But, then in 1976, it endorsed its recommencement. Each US state was granted the rights to choose whether or not to have the death penalty. Since then, only 12 states (Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin) have abolished it. At the present time, there are about 3,500 inmates on death row in various prisons across the United States.

Among other developed countries, Canada does not have a death penalty. There, the most serious sentence for murder is life imprisonment, with no possibility of parole. We must keep in mind that crime rates in Canada are extremely low and Canada is rich enough to bear the expenses associated with keeping an inmate for an indefinite time. In Asia, Japan and South Korea are among the established democracies and successful economies, which conduct frequent executions. The fatal penalty was abolished for murder in the UK in 1965.

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The socio-cultural vulnerability, economic fragility and spiral upheaval of crime prevalence and incidences in Bangladesh strongly advocate continuation of the death penalty. The death penalty must stay and be applied in cases involving murders, acid throwing and rapes where there is clear evidence and no doubt. The death penalty should be awarded for pre-meditated and voluntary manslaughters. Throwing acid may bring worse outcomes for the victim than killing her. Serial killers and professional hit-men deserve no mercy. The death sentence obviously brings an end to repetition of these evil and pre-meditated attacks and, in this way, there is a deterrent effect. We have witnessed that there are only narrow circumstances under which capital punishment is being applied in our justice system. It is not that this penalty is being awarded randomly and indiscriminately that we need to put a leash on it.

One of the great historical concerns in the West about capital punishment is that there were some instances where a guilty and executed person was later on proved innocent. But fortunately there has not been any instance in Bangladesh where any subsequent events or witnesses were brought forward to our notice to prove innocence of any person already convicted or executed. Not any guilty and/or executed person was ever proven to be innocent later on that we repented for.

We better not raise issues of political murders in this regard. There are multiple incidences where military personnel and civilians were executed in our country without any trial at all or in mock trial in covert courts. We also has a history of killing our inmates inside prisons.

There can be discussions about how this penalty be carried out in Bangladesh. A more humane method available, such as lethal injection, can be introduced. There are seven main methods of execution currently in use worldwide: hanging, stoning, electric chair, poison gas, lethal injection, firing squad, and guillotine. All the people accused should have an automatic review of their conviction by the highest court. There can be reforms designed to give accused convicts better access to evidence and judges more leeway to rule out a death sentence. Our laws should give defendants better protections such as access to all evidence favourable to them, allow judges to rule out the death penalty in cases reliant on a single witness or police informant. We also need to ban the execution of anyone declared medically as mentally retarded. Our crime experts should start using DNA evidence in making stronger cases for murders and rapes. In some cases, those sentenced to be executed, could not afford a lawyer when they went to trial. In these circumstances when they had to rely upon a court-appointed lawyer, courts should ensure they were provided with well-informed professionals. Banning death penalty must not be an option in Bangladesh at this point of time.

Most people in our country feel that killing convicted murderers will satisfy their need for justice and vengeance. They feel that certain crimes are so dreadful that executing the criminal is the only rational response. We have come across interviews of the victims' families after sentences have been awarded in some highly publicised cases. Most of them sounded happier when capital punishment was awarded. Also from religious context, Islam does not oppose it for a wide variety of crimes, including murder, sex before marriage, adultery, etc. The bible has a similar standpoint. Some Muslim countries still follow these grounds prescribed for the death penalty. And crime rates in those countries are found noticeably lower.

Once a convicted murderer is executed, there is no likelihood that he will run away from prison and kill or injure someone again. Prolonging imprisonment time will exhaust our limited imprisoning capacity and incur significant maintenance costs. In a sense, capital punishment is more humane than letting a person suffer all his lifetime; this apparently cruel method is terminating his long lasting suffering and is helping to close a chapter permanently from the minds and lives of the families of the victim and accused.

A capital punishment enforced timely, reinforces to the public mind a functional criminal justice system. However inefficient and archaic our justice system be, it is very hard to kill a wrongly convicted criminal.

There are too many steps involved, too many people engaged, in our justice system that act as safeguards so that we do not make such expensive mistakes. It is by demanding the highest penalty for the taking of human life that we assert the highest worth of human life.

Hasanat Alamgir taught Business Administration at North South University, and at present, is a Doctoral Student at University of British Columbia.