https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-65160091
'Malaysia's parliament has voted to remove the country's mandatory death
penalty, potentially sparing more than 1,300 prisoners on death row.
The country has had a moratorium on executions since 2018.
But lawmakers on Monday overwhelmingly voted to remove the death penalty as the
mandatory sentence for 11 serious crimes, including murder and terrorism.
Judges will retain discretion to impose capital punishment in exceptional
cases.
But for the most serious crimes, the courts will now hand down life
imprisonment sentences of up to 40 years, or corporal punishment such as
caning, lawmakers said.
The reforms still need to clear the country's upper house but are widely
expected to pass.
Speaking in parliament on Monday, Malaysia's deputy law minister said capital
punishment was irreversible and had not worked as a deterrent to crime.
"The death penalty has not brought the results it was intended to bring," said
Ramkarpal Singh.
There are 34 criminal offences punishable by death in Malaysia - 11 of which
before Monday carried the mandatory death penalty.
The new laws once enacted will apply retrospectively, allowing those on death
row 90 days to seek a review of their sentences.
There are currently 1,341 such prisoners in the country, more than 60% of whom
had received a mandatory sentence according to an Amnesty International
assessment.'
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-heart-united-states-democracy-uruguay-nature-rights-ecuador/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
