1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background of study
The term death penalty has become a popular topic among Malaysians due to the intent of abolishment of the death penalty entirely in Malaysia. The death penalty is a controversial topic which everyone has their own opinions and different viewpoints. Some of them think that the death penalty should exist while others think it should not exist.
Present knowledge of the existence of the death penalty and crime rates is limited. Although the statistics had proven that abolishment of the death penalty will decrease the crime rates but there is no scientific evidence to provide stance towards the statistics. The United States has a complicated legal system where different states can have a different stand on the death penalty. For example, the state of Maine which had abolished the death penalty is the safest state in the US while the state of Alaska where the death penalty still exists is the second most dangerous state in America. However, there is no scientific evidence at this point to conclude that the existence of the death penalty can deter crime.
Numerous studies conducted on the existence of the death penalty and crime studies are published in various journals. A study carries out by Dartmouth University concluded that the death penalty has no useful purpose that can be demonstrated. However, recent studies in Africa stated that the existence of the death penalty to deter crime as the society has fear of psychosis. Meanwhile, our government had determined to abolish the death penalty in our country, so we need to study the effects of the death penalty towards crime rates and the boons and banes of it. The findings mentioned above, are too small and have different stance and opinions so more studies needed to be conducted to confirm the findings.
Apart from the studies conducted on the existence of death penalty and crime rates, there is a growing need to determine whether that the existence of death penalty will be a disaster or a good thing for the safety of our country and even the world. This is because at this moment no scientific evidence had proven that how the existence of the death penalty could raise or lower the crime rates. Other than that, the security and safety of a country are extremely important as it affects the well-being of an individual as well as the achievement of the SDGs goals.
1.2 Statement of Problem
Currently, there are more 1200 people are on death row and Malaysia had executed more than 1100 people since the implementation of the death penalty. Other than that, Malaysia had been ranked as the tenth countries in the most use of the death penalty according to Amnesty International. Some of them pleaded guilty and yet they are still on the death row. Death penalty had been criticized as an abuse of human rights by the UN Human Rights.
1.3 Purpose
The purpose of the study is to seek the relationship between the existence of the death penalty and the crime rate in our country and the consequences if our country abolished death penalty.
1.4 Research Questions
• Do existence of death penalty reduce or increase the crime rate generally?
• How the existence of death penalty affects the crime rate and why?
Research Article Analysis
Amirthalingam, K. (2018). The public prosecutor and sentencing: Drug trafficking and the death penalty in Singapore. Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal, 18(1), 46-72. https://doi.org/10.1080/14729342.2018.1471835
Article Summary
Singapore is one of the countries in Asia where the death penalty is still existing. This study looked at the controversial part of capital punishment in Singapore. This study also looked at the prosecutor role in the judiciary and the abusive power of the judge in determining the sentence of criminals especially crime that will lead to capital punishment. Most people under the death penalty is due to drug offences so separation of power is vital because it relates to one’s human rights. Prior research has found intervention of politics as the best evidence-based approaches to the interference of criminal charges. Singapore is a country which has a very strict rule related to drug offences. The section 33B of the Misuse of Drugs Act suggested that the punishments will range from the minimum sentence of life imprisonment to the maximum sentence of mandatory death penalty. Since 2012, the Singapore parliament had repealed the act and changed the mandatory death penalty to a discretionary sentencing regime which means the judge can impose any sentence towards the criminal. So, now the judge plays an important role in the faith of the criminals. If there’s no separation of power of public prosecutor and judge and what if the judge does not act independently on every criminal. Hence, separation of power should be implemented in order to treat every people fairly. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of Public Prosecutor in sentencing drug offences which can lead to the death penalty in Singapore.
Article Evaluation/ Critique
Introduction
The author state the problem as an abuse of power among the executive and the judiciary who had been accused of due to political intervention in the judiciary system which supposedly needs to be free of intervention. The study’s aim is to examine the role of Public Prosecutor in sentencing drug offences which can lead to the death penalty in Singapore. The study which titled as drug trafficking and the death penalty in Singapore does not make an enormous connection between the drug offences and the death penalty in the country, but this study mainly focused on the political intervention in the judiciary system which shows a very big connection with the death penalty but not with drug offences. Due to the different political system in the world, the writer should also include the political system in that country and explain it briefly so that readers will understand the issue. Why does political intervention happen in Singapore? What is the solution to this issue? Why the people still in trust with the judiciary system in Singapore despite all the allegation? These questions are not being answered in the article. All in all, the writer did an excellent job of giving examples on the issue raised.
Review of literature
The review of literature is very partial as it does not cover all of the components associated with the problem of drugs and death penalty. The writer highlighted the role of a public prosecutor in sentencing at the beginning of the article and the procedure of sentencing in Singapore. Then the author provides example of public prosecutor in United States who is Robert Muller and he is responsible to investigate the alleged connection between the Russian government and the current administration of President Trump. It also mentioned that the public prosecutor is completely free of government intervention which is also the definition of public prosecutor. The review continues with separation of power between judges and the public prosecutor in sentencing. The review concluded with a hope to protect the independence of public prosecutor and prevent the interference by the judiciary or legislative. All the reference related to the issue are perfectly cited and numbered at the bottom of the article really help to find the references easily.
The review of literature will help to provide brief information to the readers on the prosecution and let them understand that extra research and studies are necessary to replace the independence of prosecutor. The comment of a critic before the conclusion shows that some of them had realized the issue but some had not so this research had to be deepened to find out what actually is going on and find a solution to this problem. The author also wrote in a good flow so that readers can understand the basics before the subjects become more complicated.