In Asia there is a trend to reintroduce the death penalties
in countries which appeared to have abandoned the practice, and were
approaching full abolition. This is a sad ending to the slow advance to
universal abolition which still continues throughout the world. There is a
saying that those who are ignorant of history are condemned to repeat its
mistakes. The awful mistake of believing that capital punishment is an
appropriate and effective counter to evil has been made and oft repeated over
thousands of years. Notable examples were the drastic legal code of Draco, the
Greek Dictator, 622 B.C., which inflicted the death penalty for almost every
crime, and the “Bloody Code”, a term used to refer to the system of laws and
punishments in England between 1688 and 1815. At its height this criminal law
included some 220 crimes punishable by death, including "being in the
company of Gypsies for one month", "strong evidence of malice in a
child aged 7–14 years of age" and "blacking the face or using a
disguise whilst committing a crime". It took centuries for humanity to
progress to an understanding of human dignity, and to elaborate a penal system
capable of humane punishment. The step backwards to the failed method of
capital punishment can be made instantly by countries that have not progressed
to formal constitutional and legal abolition at both national and international
levels.
Indonesia: A de facto moratorium in effect between
2008 and 2013 was never an official one. Reportedly, the stoppage in executions
in 2009 was due to procedural questions before the Supreme Court. Reports from
August 2010 indicate that despite resolution of those questions in favor of
allowing more speedy executions, the government did not resume executions until
2013. That had been interpreted as a hesitancy to execute, rather than an
official moratorium. Indonesia is now flaunting a renewed enthusiasm for the
death penalty. Five persons were executed in 2013, six in this year, while
prisoners are already installed in the antechamber for execution on the island
of Nusakambangan.
Pakistan: A communication was recently sent from
Pakistan's interior ministry to all provincial home secretaries, instructing
the latter to carry out death penalties against death row prisoners who have
exhausted all legal avenues for appeal or clemency. Following a Taliban attack
against a school in Peshawar in December 2014, Pakistan announced that it would
resume carrying out the death penalty for those convicted of terrorism charges,
lifting its six-year moratorium on executions. 24 individuals have reportedly been
executed in Pakistan since then. This recent announcement by the government
would expand the resumption of executions to all death penalty crimes, putting
hundreds of death row prisoners in Pakistan at imminent risk of execution.
India: The last two executions to take place in India
were the February 8, 2013 hanging of Muhammad Afzal, convicted of plotting the
2001 attack on India’s Parliament, and the hanging of 2008 Mumbai attack gunman
Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab on November 21, 2012. Prior to these hangings, the
last execution in India had taken place in 2004, when Dhananjoy Chatterjee was
executed by hanging for the murder and rape of a 14-year old girl. This, in
turn, was the country’s first execution since 1995.
One lesson to be learned from this ebb and flow of
application of the death penalty is that continued attention to education on
abolition is necessary even in countries which have abolished the death penalty
with full international ratification. Comments in Australian newspapers show
majority support for the execution by Indonesia of Australian citizens, albeit
that these co-nationals are of Asian origin.
