Duo on Death Row at Large

 TWO prisoners on death row are now at large after escaping from prison, Justice Minister Bryan Kramer says. “Two prisoners sentenced to death are on the run while 12 with similar penalty are in prison. These prisoners on death row awaiting the State, the state, through the Government to make the necessary decision and to put in place the Administrative Mechanism and infrastructure to implement the court’s decision on death penalty. There were nine prisoners who were sentenced to death since the reintroduction of the death penalty into our criminal justice system in 1991. However, some of these prisoners have died awaiting execution while others have successfully appealed or reviewed their sentences at the Supreme Court”. Kramer said that on Thursday when presenting the amended Criminal Code Bill 2022 in Parliament to repel the death penalty. “One of the main reasons for our inability to implement the death penalty is the lack of necessary mechanism and infrastructure to implement the death penalty. This was largely attributed to the difficulty presented by a single method of implementation and administration of the death penalty in the past which was to be done by hanging. Issues were raised as to whether it was the most humane way to do so. So ‘in 2013 the National Executive Council tasked the Chief Secretary to inquire into the feasibility of implementation of the death penalty and to report back to the Government by the end of that year. The Chief Secretary put together a technical team comprising of officials from the relevant Government Agencies and the team went on a fact-finding tour to the United State of America (USA), Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia and upon their return submitted a report: Implementing the Death Penalty through lethal injection, hanging and firing squad. According to that report, it would be practically difficult to implement all these three methods. So, the criminal code has been reviewed to amend this all offences that have the death penalty to be replaces with life penalty without parole or eligible after 30 years. These offenses are: Treason amended to Life imprisonment and no parole, piracy life imprisonment with Parole after 30 years, attempted piracy with personal violence’s life imprisonment with Parole after 30 years, willful murder life imprisonment without parole, willful murder of a person on account of sorcery life imprisonment and parole after 30 years, aggravated rape life imprisonment with no parole. robbery with violence is life imprisonment with parole after 30 years”.