Thailand still has the death penalty: Fresh calls for ultimate sanction after horrific massacre in Lopburi

[rooster59]

Thailand still has the death penalty: Fresh calls for ultimate sanction after horrific massacre in Lopburi

 

Image: Thai Rath

 

Thai media has said that Thai society was shocked by the appalling violence displayed in Thursday's gold shop robbery that left three dead and four injured. One of the dead was a two year old boy shot dead by the lone robber while out shopping with his mum.

 

The robber shot indiscriminately at customers of the Aurora gold shop at Robinsons - shocking scenes were captured on CCTV. 

 

Now, said Thai Rath Online, the Thai public are asking: Does the country still have the death penalty?

 

The answer to this was an emphatic yes. 

 

Yet the question remains - will the Thais be prepared to use it?, notes Thaivisa. 

 

Thai Rath said that Thai society was saying that the robbery in Lopburi was deserving of the death penalty and that no mercy should be shown.

 

They interviewed a former director of the Department of Corrections Kobkiat Kasiwiwat who had 35 years of experience in the penal system. 

 

He confirmed that Thailand still has the death penalty. He gave the following details about its use:

 

Since 1935 326 people have been executed.

 

Of these 319 were by firing squad, the last of those being on the 11th of December 2003.

 

After that lethal injection became the method of execution with the first of seven people to receive that penalty executed on 12th December 2003. 

 

The last person to be executed by lethal injection was a man on 18th June 2018 - this followed a nine year period in which the death penalty was not used but was still on the books. 

 

The person executed was a 26 year old male who, in the company of another person, stabbed a M5 (last but one year of secondary school) male student ten times while stealing 2,000 baht. The assailant then fled. 

 

The incident happened at the Somdej Phrasri Nakharin 95 public park on 17th July 2012. 

 

The man was caught but denied the crime. He was found guilty of murder in the pursuance of robbery. He had many previous cases of drug and gun offences to his name.

 

The man's relatives were allowed to say farewell to him on death row before he was given a final meal of sticky rice and grilled chicken. 

 

When the lethal injection was carried out the inmate seemed indifferent to his fate, said Kobkiat.

 

The present chief of the department of corrections Pol Col Narat Sewtanan said that many countries have stopped administering the death penalty but many like Thailand retain the ultimate sanction - others are the USA and China.

 

He said that the purpose of the death penalty is to focus on protecting society and most citizens from becoming the victims of crime rather than protecting the rights of the individual who committed the crime. 

 

He hoped that having the death penalty would act as a deterrent to those intent on committing serious crime.

 

The assailant in the latest case seems to have been unswayed by the deterrent, notes Thaivisa. 

 

A massive hunt across several provinces is on for the robber who used a gun with silencer before escaping on a motorcycle with around 500,000 baht in gold jewelry.

 

Source: Thai Rath

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2020-01-11

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[PJPom]

I read that a shoot to kill order has been given, solves the problem and as a bonus excludes the Lawyers. I am of the opinion that waiting for twenty years before the penalty is applied is ridiculous.

[DaRoadrunner]

I still want to know why he killed that small child? What was the motive?

 

Let him suffer and rot in jail for a long time first.

Edited January 11, 2020 by DaRoadrunner

[Chazar]

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

He hoped that having the death penalty would act as a deterrent to those intent on committing serious crime.

Doesnt work criminals   dont think theyll  get caught........however they do  not  re-offend which is the main issue  for me

[nodomino]

I am of mixed opinion. Child murder seems to me to be a mandate for the execution of the perpetrator. Yet, as vengeance..which is a valid objective in my view, life long imprisonment would be a never ending agony. The problem with imprisonments is the passing of time increases the opportunity and likelihood of release. This has been the case with many violent offenders and it ought not be even a possibility. Where that possibility exists, it should be foreclosed at the time of sentencing and the penalty of death imposed as immediate as possible.

[Chazar]

2 minutes ago, nodomino said:

The problem with imprisonments is the passing of time increases the opportunity and likelihood of release.

society should not have to finance  this lifetime of leisure

[kwak250]

My wife has said all the media are saying they will arrest him within 3 days maximum.

Not sure how they are going to do that unless they already have someone who will take the fall?

[shady86]

10 minutes ago, kwak250 said:

My wife has said all the media are saying they will arrest him within 3 days maximum.

Not sure how they are going to do that unless they already have someone who will take the fall?

We all know very well how Thais manage time. 3 days sounds like 3 months to me. 

[Nyezhov]

Im very ambivelent about the death penalty, sort of philosophy vis a vis procedure. Ill work it out in my head, somedays.

[Dukeleto]

Quote

When the lethal injection was carried out the inmate seemed indifferent to his fate, said Kobkiat.

In this case it appears the death penalty meant nothing and so even his own life it seems had no value to himself and which whilst I am not a psychologist, indicates to me he was probably a psychopath which is why he has no empathy for the feelings of others etc etc. Such people will simply repeat past crimes as there is no reason or "fear" of anything to stop them or anything to make them reflect on what they have done to others. This is the profile of the worst kind of thug and looks to be the same as the current thug on the loose. Most people generally don't want to do others harm and as I fall into that group I simply cannot understand why anyone would even think of doing it unprovoked. If you do then there is absolutely something wrong with your brain and how you think...period! I tend to agree with the Thai concept on the death penalty which is to rather protect society as a whole rather than the human rights of an individual (the inmate who was euthanised) who can only be described as defective and unserviceable.

[RotBenz8888]

3 minutes ago, shady86 said:

We all know very well how Thais manage time. 3 days sounds like 3 months to me. 

But with Redbull boy it took 3 seconds to decide he'll walk free. 

[Card]

The death penalty does not work. It may prevent the guilty from offending again but, in societies with very imperfect legal systems, it also prevents the innocent from living.

 

Better the guilty live than the innocent be killed.

[johnnybangkok]

There is absolutely no logical or scientific reason to think that the death penalty acts in any way as a deterant. At best it it acts as a money saving device so society doesn't have to pay for a lifetime of imprisonment but even then, appeal after appeal usual means a significant amount of time still spent in prison at taxpayers expense.

There's also the sticky issue of people being found innocent after being initially found guilty (advances in DNA profiling has proven many, many previous guilty people innocent). You can't free a dead person.

Since the death penalty is nothing more than public backed revenge, personally I think that 'life means life' is a much better option. A lifetime of incarceration has got to be worse than a quick painless death and obviously there is still a chance of exoneration if the evidence shows up.

 

[gjoo888]

Can they torture him for awhile before they exterminate him?

[sammieuk1]

If they ever find this scum he should be wasted with his own gun by the relatives he slaughtered failing that there would be tens of millions of volunteers for sure ????

[kensisaket]

Not sure why anyone would think the death penalty would ever have time to be carried out.  Unless he gets put into solitary confinement, I seriously doubt he will last a day no matter where he is locked up.  

[NE1]

In this day and age , the death penalty should be administered if the proof is 100%.....DNA etc.

I don't know why people think the death sentence is a deterrent .

It is a punishment.

 

deterrent

[kiwikeith]

11 hours ago, DaRoadrunner said:

I still want to know why he killed that small child? What was the motive?

 

Let him suffer and rot in jail for a long time first.

I  would say the reason was that this guy is  a serious sicko and by. shooting the child the attention went that way and made it easier for him to escape.

Up the reward to 1 million BHT some one knows this guy and the bike he was on, also he looks to be able to handle a weapon so he may well be ex police or army.

Who ever he is, he is hiding now maybe across a border and someone will know him, uping the reward is the best way to catch this scumbag, I still think the BIB will get him.

[neeray]

1 hour ago, nodomino said:

I am of mixed opinion. Child murder seems to me to be a mandate for the execution of the perpetrator. Yet, as vengeance..which is a valid objective in my view, life long imprisonment would be a never ending agony. The problem with imprisonments is the passing of time increases the opportunity and likelihood of release. This has been the case with many violent offenders and it ought not be even a possibility. Where that possibility exists, it should be foreclosed at the time of sentencing and the penalty of death imposed as immediate as possible.

"life long imprisonment would be a never ending agony"

It may also create "life long agony" for the family of the victims as there would be no closure.

[oslooskar]

33 minutes ago, NE1 said:

In this day and age , the death penalty should be administered if the proof is 100%.....DNA etc.

I don't know why people think the death sentence is a deterrent .

It is a punishment.

 

deterrent

Obviously the death penalty is a deterrent because no one who has ever been executed has murdered again. Regarding punishment; death is not something one experiences so it can't really be considered a punishment. After all, one has to be alive in order to experience.

[RichardColeman]

A certain brigade and failed shadow cabinet leader in my UK would be encouraging 'rehabilitation' , but I'm glad I'm not one of them. 

[Radar501]

1 hour ago, gjoo888 said:

Can they torture him for awhile before they exterminate him?

Hardened convicts have their own moral code when it comes to certain crimes, and the slaughter of an innocent child is viewed with total disgust.

 

Even in solitary confinement, this sack of poo would need eyes in the back of his head.   Fellow inmates have heaps of time to wait for that moment of opportunity to enforce their own system of justice.

[peter14]

Thai society... well.. they should wake up because the safe face and shock.. bit helping... di ainehting about tiur society.  ....

[A Los for words]

1 hour ago, sammieuk1 said:

If they ever find this scum he should be wasted with his own gun by the relatives he slaughtered failing that there would be tens of millions of volunteers for sure ????

That's a hell of a queue, Charles Bronson.

[hotchilli]

14 hours ago, rooster59 said:

He said that the purpose of the death penalty is to focus on protecting society and most citizens from becoming the victims of crime rather than protecting the rights of the individual who committed the crime

Shame there isn't a similar stiff penalty for corruption, which affects virtually everyone!

But it seems in that case the individuals who are the worst offenders are the most protected.

[ParkerN]

The death penalty is only applied by countries with 3rd-world populations. It is a social sanction which much better fits the animal kingdom that those which like to think of themselves as human.

 

Just my opinion.

[Jane Dough]

1 hour ago, NE1 said:

In this day and age , the death penalty should be administered if the proof is 100%.....DNA etc.

I don't know why people think the death sentence is a deterrent .

It is a punishment.

 

deterrent

Timothy Evans was 100% guilty.....respected and trusted pillar of the street policeman Christie said so.

 

Rooster

[Snig27]

31 minutes ago, oslooskar said:

Obviously the death penalty is a deterrent because no one who has ever been executed has murdered again. Regarding punishment; death is not something one experiences so it can't really be considered a punishment. After all, one has to be alive in order to experience.

you are confusing deterrence with repeat offening. Thailand has a death penalty and it did not deter this murder. Data in the US has repeatedly shown that the death penalty doesn’t stop any initial crime, however the application will prevent the same person doing it again of course. 

[Jane Dough]

1 minute ago, ParkerN said:

The death penalty is only applied by countries with 3rd-world populations. It is a social sanction which much better fits the animal kingdom that those which like to think of themselves as human.

 

Just my opinion.

Please define third world population, I am curious.

 

Rooster

[Jane Dough]

8 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Shame there isn't a similar stiff penalty for corruption, which affects virtually everyone!

But it seems in that case the individuals who are the worst offenders are the most protected.

Didn't the death penalty come in for billion baht corruption....or was it just mooted?

 

Rooster