Singapore to adjust law on capital punishment

Singapore is poised to make changes to its laws on capital punishment, removing mandatory death sentences for certain drug trafficking crimes and murder. Under changes proposed in Parliament the courts will be given the discretion to decide on a death sentence or life imprisonment, for drug couriers who cooperate with the police. The government also intends for capital punishment to apply only in murders where there is an intention to kill. Currently, there are 35 people on death row in Singapore, 28 of them for drug offenses.

“To have a mandatory death penalty for drug offensives means the judge in the case has no ability to consider the individual circumstances of the defendant,” said Harriet McCulloch, who covers South East Asia for the British anti-death penalty organization, Reprieve.

McCulloch told Vatican Radio mandatory death sentences often trap poor foreign nationals being used as drug mules by cartels.

“Across the region there are serious issues with access to justice [for foreign nationals],” she said, mentioning lack of translators and effective legal representation.

Listen to the interview by Charles Collins with Harriet McCulloch: