Relevant Thai agencies back end of death penalty

[webfact]

Relevant agencies back end of death penalty

  

BANGKOK, 11 October 2016 (NNT) – On the occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, which falls on October 10 of every year, related agencies have joined in a discussion on the death penalty, which the majority suggested should be abolished. 

Former Deputy Prime Minister Veerapong Ramangkul, along with representatives from several concerned agencies, took part in the discussion to exchange opinions concerning the death penalty. Among the participating agencies were the National Human Rights Commission, the Ministry of Justice, the Department of International Organizations, the Union for Civil Liberty and the Office of the Attorney General. 

Most of the participants expressed the view that imposing the death penalty on law offenders is not an effective solution. Instead, they were supportive of the strengthening of law enforcement to prevent violations and take sensible action against perpetrators. Member of the National Human Rights Commission Chatchai Suthiklom proposed that life imprisonment is set as the maximum penalty, to be given in accompaniment with mental rehabilitation. He also said clear guidelines should be established for the consideration of parole. 

According to Amnesty International, 140 countries around the world have repealed the death penalty, whereas another 58 have not. Although Thailand belongs to the latter group, the country has not put any convicts to death since August 2009 or for a period of seven years. If no death penalty is given for ten consecutive years, Thailand would be considered by the United Nations as having practically abolished the penalty. 

 

-- nnt 2016-10-11

[trogers]

Yeah!

 

More Bt500 fines instead...

[Khon Kaen Dave]

In his memoirs,and his retirement letter to the Home Office,Albert Pierpoint also said that the 'Death Penalty'(hanging )was not a deterrent.

[evadgib]

On the day a Monk is arrested for sodomising and murdering a 6 year old boy?

[Brer Fox]

A very benevolent objective for this Group to spare the lives of murderers and cold blooded executioners. Here's hoping future potential killers will show the same generosity and humanitarianism and spare the lives of their intended victims. 

Not being given a death sentence means that there is always the chance of being released on bail paid by a generous benefactor.

 

[NickJ]

It's not a deterent.  It's a penalty.  Step it up and rid the world of people bidding for it.

People that commit capital crimes are a burden to the state. Get rid of them faster. Save money......a few decades of knowing the ultimate penalty is a month away..well then maybe it's a deterent. 

The death penalty is not supposed to be a deterent. It's best as being seen as factual.

[hawker9000]

DNA evidence.  CCTV cams everywhere.  Most people walking around have photo & video recording capability on their phones. The phones themselves subject to monitoring by authorities.  Absent a determined public prosecutor with a personal agenda or police investigator determined to convict someone regardless of guilt (who therefore belong at the other end of the process themselves...) or politically driven sham trials in some countries, false convictions are practically now impossible.  Predators need to be quickly eliminated from the gene pool (and the process should complete in a matter of months, not years...).

 

They say the death penalty is not a deterrent, but how could anyone possibly know this when the death penalty is as uncertain, time-consuming, and subject to technical whim as it is?  I doubt potential murderers take it seriously because they simply like their odds.  Out of about a half million murders committed in the U.S. in the last 25 yrs, only about 7000 received the death penalty, and only 800 of those were actually executed.  The odds of getting the death penalty in the U.S. only run somewhere around 1-2%.  Hardly a deterrent, obviously.