Death penalty not the way to go

Opposition and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Leader Sajith Premadasa has once again ignited the debate on the death penalty by vowing to sanction executions once a Government led by him takes office. He singled out terrorists and drug dealers among those who would face the death penalty and pledged to emulate Singapore where trafficking and importing certain quantities of illegal drugs carries a mandatory death sentence.

Sri Lanka’s Singapore fixation so far has been to match the Southeast Asian nation’s economic prowess, good governance and zero-tolerance to corruption, all well worthy, but the death penalty is one area we should not go the Singapore way.

Any move to reintroduce the death penalty, in a country which last saw its state-sanctioned hanging in 1976, is divisive. Internationally too it could cost the country heavily.

Sri Lanka is in the grip of its worst economic meltdown since independence and any talk of reintroducing the death penalty is a sure way to lose whatever concessions it gets from the European Union (EU), in particular the GSP+ trade concessions, a facility heavily tied to the country’s human rights record.

In 2019, when former President Maithripala Sirisena signed four execution orders, there was an international outcry with the EU joining leading human rights organisations in urging the Government to maintain its moratorium on the death penalty. Sri Lanka was among 120 countries that voted in favour of a resolution on the “Moratorium on the use of the death penalty” in 2018 at the UN General Assembly.

Any decision to reimpose the death penalty cannot be adopted as a party policy. During a parliamentary debate on the subject held in October, 2015, MPs bypassed party lines and spoke according to their conscience and it was clear from the outcome that there is no consensus on the matter. While some MPs were in favour of execution of offenders linked to serious crimes, others were sceptical such a move would act as a deterrent. Subsequently there was talk of putting the question to the public at a referendum but such suggestions did not gather enough momentum to make it to the ballot paper.

The death penalty is irreversible and in a system beset with cases of wrongful convictions, tampering with investigations, fixing cases, corruption among the rank and file of investigating authorities and lack of public faith chiefly in the Police and to some extent in the judicial process, there will always be a question mark over any execution that is carried out.

Also those most likely to be affected will be from lower socio-economic backgrounds, with no access to proper counsel and weighed down by societal prejudices because of where they come from.

H.G. Dharmadasa, a former Commissioner of Prisons, who officiated at seven judicial hangings, in an interview with the Daily FT in July, 2019 said there is no guarantee that an innocent would not go to the gallows however watertight a case is considered.

“Judges and juries can make mistakes and the manner in which crimes are sensationalised in the media often blur the line between fact and fiction and can influence judgments. You can hang 100 guilty men but if you hang one innocent man, the system is a failure,” he said.

The Opposition Leader who is waiting in the wings to take up high office must understand that, even though calls to hang those who are condemned by the courts and often by society, makes for good election time sloganeering, death penalty has no place in today’s world and certainly no place in a country which already has too much blood of her citizens on her hands.