Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Sample Review of Related Lit
Sample Review of Related Lit
conclusion, methodologies and others. Those that were included in this chapter
helps in familiarizing information that are relevant and similar to the present
study.
Local
protect and promote human rights in the Philippines, the Commission on Human
Rights has made the following policy study on the justification and the efficacy of
capital punishment. This is pursuant to the vital state policy as stated in Article II
Section 11 of the Philippine Constitution that “The State values the dignity of
every human person and guarantees full respect for human rights.”
Studies of FLAG revealed that the death penalty has not deferred the
FLAG said: “x x x the commission of rape increased by 40% in 1994 and 44% in
1995. Violent raids of banks and other business establishments rose sharply in
the first quarter of 1995. Kidnapping and serious illegal detention continue to
occur, with many cases unreported, as victims have lost faith in the authorities. In
1994, the country’s nationwide crime volume declined by only 1% from the
previous year but the total crime volume in Metro Manila reached 27,008 or an
average month crime rate of 24.93% about 6.79% higher than the 1993 monthly
rate of 18.14%.”
was the penalty for various crimes during Martial Law, violent crimes increased
with alarming regularity. Survey show that the threat of death did not in any way
deter crimes as shown in the crime volume and crime rates between 1979 and
1985.
What really defers the commission of the crime is the ability of criminal
law enforcement to make citizens law abiding by effecting arrest and intensifying
its crime prevention activities: (1) Increase police visibility by augmenting foot
and mobile patrols and construction of detachment in crime prone areas. (2)
the “seed bed” of crimes, the threat of death could not deter criminality or if
there is any, the deterrent effect will be negligible. Instead, the government
should address the problem of poverty and inequality by proving the quality of
family ide and through amelloration of economic and social conditions in the
community.
Based on this premise, the Commission is not fully convinced that the
criminality lies in effective law enforcement, the quick and impartial delivery of
(Bueno, A.) In a country that has seen the re-imposition, abolition, and
possible re-imposition (again) of the penalty of death, what can we expect once
the death penalty bill passes into law, 11 years after its most recent version was
“killed”? Here are a few examples of what a future with the death penalty looks
When the Philippines ratified, and therefore bound itself to the ICCPR in
1986, it was obliged to respect any human being’s inherent right to life, as stated
the specific goal of abolishing the death penalty in the territory of any State who
obligation.
Article 1 of the protocol states that “No one within the jurisdiction of a
State Party to the present Protocol shall be executed,” and that “Each State Party
1
RESOLUTION ON THE RE-EXAMINATION OF THE DEATH PENALTY (R.A. NO. 7659).
Available at http://chr.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Resolution-On-the-Re-Examination-of-
the-Death-Penalty-Law-R.A.-No.-7659.pdf
shall take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty within its
jurisdiction.”
Even a year before the Philippines ratified the protocol, former president
international obligation (thus explaining her “no” vote in the final House reading
in 2017).
obligations in the ICCPR (of which the protocol forms a part), considering the
Aside from violating the ICCPR and its Second Optional Protocol, the
reimposition of the death penalty may also have adverse economic effects to the
human rights conventions (the ICCPR and its protocols are landmark human
Justice Artemio Panganiban was quoted as saying that the Supreme Court could
Mateo the fatal fallibility of some of its judges, stating that 77.71 percent of the
decisions tried by lower courts, imposing the death penalty, are either modified
or reversed upon review by the highest court. In the case, the Supreme Court
even stated the following numbers: Of the 907 cases it reviewed from 1993 to
2004, only 230 (25.36 percent) have been affirmed (or found to have been
properly decided by the lower courts). From death, the Supreme Court in fact
reduced the penalty to reclusion perpetua in 483 cases (53.25 percent). It also
In sum, the court surmised: during that period, 651 out of 907 individuals
were saved from lethal injection, and would have been wrongly punished with
the death penalty if not for the review conducted by the Supreme Court. 2
immune from errors and that of the Philippines is no exception. A single error
used to extract confessions. Such grave violations of human rights are prohibited
by the Philippine Constitution and by the key international human rights treaties
2
Bueno A. (2017) THE PRICE OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: WHAT A FUTURE WITH
DEATH PENALTY MAY LOOK LIKE. Available at
http://cnnphilippines.com/life/culture/politics/2017/03/08/death-penalty.html
delegation visited the Philippines and gathered testimonies of some of those
including ill-treatment and torture. The allegations of the death row prisoners
were consistent with patterns and types of torture and ill-treatment by police
concerned that illegal methods often used in the past to secure convictions of
torture and ill-treatment warrantless arrests, the planting of evidence, and the
police investigative practice - and has sharply increased the risk that the innocent
20 years it is clear that the concerns surrounding the application of the death
penalty in the past remains pressing today. These concerns include: • The risks of
including the planting of evidence, and the use of ill-treatment and torture to
secure confessions from criminal suspects. • Evidence that the death penalty
necessary to ensure fair trial, which are especially important when the
punishment is irrevocable - and which include the right of the accused to have
access to competent legal counsel at every stage of proceedings - are not being
Supreme Court reviews - led to the death penalty being imposed. The cases
underscored the inevitable risks of human error in the judicial process and how,
in practice, the death penalty was imposed in an arbitrary, selective way. The
cases also drew attention to the human suffering of the falsely convicted - most
of whom had to endure imprisonment under sentence of death for over ten
Moreover, fears remain that innocent people may have been executed. In
one case, involving a farmer named Eusebio Molijan, sentenced to death for
electrocution in 1958, there remains concern that he may have been falsely
which he retracted during his trial, saying he had been punched in the stomach
and beaten with a piece of wood by police to force him to confess. He also
claimed he had been forced against his will to participate in the robbery and that
another man had planned and carried out the murders. The Supreme Court
acknowledged that there was insufficient evidence to prove that Molijan was the
The risks of executing the innocent were highlighted by the case of two
1976. Late on the night before the execution one of the prisoners, an elderly man
named Felipe Santos, told the prison chaplain that he was innocent. The chaplain
went to the adjoining cell and asked Santos’ co-accused about Santos’
authorities, the execution, due to take place at 3.00 pm, was called off by
periods of imprisonment, not the threat of execution alone, which will act as
deterrent against crime. The frustration and fear felt by many Filipinos because
enforcers are too often perceived as corrupted or responsible for human rights
violations while justice is not seen to be distributed fairly-the wealthy and
disproportionate way against the poor, ill-educated and disadvantaged. The risk
have access to competent counsel, and that the rigorous standards of fair trial
lethal drugs is brutalizing and degrading. It violates the principles of the Universal
renewed respect for human rights that lay at the heart of the popular movement
Foreign Literature
3
PHILIPPINES: THE DEATH PENALTY Criminality, Justice and Human Rights. Available at
http://www.amnesty.org.ph/wpcontent/uploads/2016/12/Philippines_DP_Criminality_asa3500919
97en1.pdf
A. Against the imposition of death penalty
In a book authored by the United Nations entitled Moving Away from the
Death Penalty it provides that International attitudes to the death penalty have
evolved with the knowledge that every criminal justice system, however
human rights law, recognising that susceptibility, mandates that fair trial
is that those facing the death penalty should be afforded special protection and
guarantees to ensure a fair trial above and beyond those afforded in non-capital
cases. The reality is that the prevailing law and practice in far too many
retentionist countries across the Caribbean, Africa and Asia do not provide the
level of protection required in capital cases. Unless and until states can meet
universally accepted standards, the death penalty should not be enforced. Too
many countries retain the death penalty without assuming responsibility for the
and unfair trials in capital cases in Caribbean countries. Wrongful convictions and
unfair trials are all too common, and the ratio of successful appeals to the Courts
4
MOVING AWAY FROM THE DEATH PENALTY. Available at
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/newyork/Documents/Moving-Away-from-the-Death-Penalty-2015-
web.pdf
of Appeal and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council reveals that the proper
administration of justice is called into question in far too many capital cases.
There are serious concerns that the common law as applied in the 19th century
is not an adequate instrument for control of poorly paid, lightly disciplined police
forces who are under pressure to secure results in the face of rising crime rates
and criminal violence. The law as it stands does not provide an adequate basis
defective investigation. People who face the death penalty are typically tried and
when legal aid is not available. The right of access to a lawyer while in custody
remains, on the whole, theoretical rather than practical, and trial and appeal
ensure a fair trial and often lack sufficient resources to obtain the expert
that capital murder trials are held in the High Court before a single judge who
determines guilt and imposes a sentence, not before a jury. Although Malawi’s
Criminal Procedure Code provides for the right of trial by jury, jury trials in
least in part by their cost Article 42 of the Malawi Constitution provides that
indigent defendants facing criminal charges are entitled to free legal aid “where
the interests of justice so require.” In practice, however, legal aid is provided only
in homicide cases as there are so few lawyers to serve the entire country. Malawi
has struggled for years with a tremendous backlog of homicide cases causing
severe prison overcrowding throughout the country. Bail is rarely granted in such
cases, and homicide trials are frequently suspended, meaning many accused
persons spend several years awaiting trial. These “remand” prisoners typically
will not speak to a lawyer until the day of trial, when a Legal-Aid advocate will
interview them briefly. The defence rarely calls witnesses or conduct any
individual convicted of homicide has the right to appeal to the Malawi Supreme
Court. In practice, however, the right to appeal is often frustrated by the lack of
track cases on appeal. Case files often go missing. The law, as applied in countries
such as Malawi, does not protect against mistakes leading to the wrong person
in Asia, specifically in death penalty cases, the right to a fair trial was impeded by
laws which denied due process. Even in countries where due process safeguards
exist in principle, they were not applied in practice.” The Anti-Death Penalty Asia
torture and on the use of such confessions. Laws impose mandatory death
sentences for crimes such as drug trafficking, and place the burden of proof on
the accused, depriving them of the right to be presumed innocent until and
unless proven guilty according to law. Access to a lawyer before, during and after
trial is often denied, and in some countries the independence of the judiciary is
not assured. Some states have established special courts which sentence people
public disquiet about the death penalty with the knowledge that there is a real
danger the state could execute someone in error following an unfair trial. In
January 2011, Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice admitted that Chiang Kuo-ching had
been executed in error in 1997, for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl
Military Supreme Court Prosecutor’s Office filed an extraordinary appeal with the
strong lights, threatened with an electric prod and deprived of sleep while being
forced to undergo strenuous physical activities.25 The authorities accepted that
the trial court had ignored Chiang’s allegations of torture and his pleas of
innocence and that his conviction had been rushed through by the military court
mother and conceded that the authorities had “acted wrongly” in the case.
defence counsel. Indeed, Japanese courts tend not to find problems even when
cases, death sentences have been imposed and finalised despite insufficient
assistance from a defence lawyer, but there have been no cases in which a death
minimum fair trial guarantee that needs to be respected in all capital cases is the
saved many innocent lives, as the appellate courts have on numerous occasions
no mandatory right of appeal, thus increasing the risk that wrongful convictions
China now provides for more than one appeal, but there are concerns
that the review process before the Supreme People’s Court does not meet the
minimum requirements of Article 14 of the ICCPR because the present
appeals must be governed by the principles and safeguards of Article 14, and in
for appeal to a higher court in death penalty cases, and in North Korea there is
Many lessons can be learned from the United Kingdom, where the death
penalty was in effect abolished in 1965. Between 1966 and 1993, there were 13
cases concerning particularly heinous crimes. The most notable were those of
the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four, all wrongfully convicted of murder
wrongfully convicted of a child sex murder. “All would certainly have attracted
the death penalty had it been available. This persuaded many who had
was not until 1999 that the United Kingdom ratified Protocol No. 6 to the
European Convention on Human Rights and Protocol No. 2 of the ICCPR, thus
parliament to seek to reinstate the death penalty. Even the families of the victims
of the most appalling types of crime, like the abduction and sexual murder of
capital punishment has been further strengthened by a series of cases where the
were executed. In 1998, the Court of Appeal found that the conviction of
1952, should be quashed. In delivering judgement, Lord Justice Rose stated that
the case had wide significance and demonstrated that “capital punishment was
not perhaps an appropriate culmination for a criminal justice system which was
is that the investigation, prosecution and trial have been conducted with
impeccable fairness and propriety. All too often, capital trials fall short of these
standards. But even when procedural guarantees are improved and the
protection of law is provided to all individuals, wrongful convictions and
miscarriages of justice will still occur. The likelihood of wrongful convictions can
be decreased, but the risk that innocent people will be executed can never be
prove that the death penalty acts as a greater deterrence to potential offenders
crime, violence and violent extremism. The death penalty is frequently misused
to eliminate political opponents. While capital punishment may satisfy the need
for retribution, it does not provide redress for the victims of crime and their
families. Particularly in fragile situations, the death sentence entails the risk of
further alienating citizens from their state rather than promoting confidence in
constitutional state that puts the law above the use of violence and strives to
protect all of its inhabitants. By advocating the abolition of the death penalty,
the death penalty, Switzerland is promoting the protection of human rights and
5
FDFA ACTION PLAN FOR THE UNIVERSAL ABOLITION OF DEATH PENALTY 2017.
B. In favor of the imposition of death penalty
(JOHNSONS DT, 2011) Japan and the USA are the only two rich
Japanese respondents said they favor retaining the death penalty. Since the
Occupation ended in 1952, there have been at least 36 surveys on the subject,
and in almost every instance a large majority expressed support for the death
“neutrally” either). During the postwar period there have been smaller
fluctuations in support for capital punishment in Japan than in the United States,
explain and justify the continued use of capital punishment. Neither engages the
question of secrecy. The first claim is that abolishing the death penalty despite
public support would undermine confidence in law and perhaps even lead to an
increase in private acts of vengeance. As one prosecutor told me, “If we stopped
2019. Available at
https://www.eda.admin.ch/dam/eda/en/documents/publications/MenschenrechtehumanitaerePolitik
undMigration/aktionsplan-todesstrafe-2017-19_EN.pdf
using capital punishment, people’s respect for law would decline. You may not
notice it for one year or 10 years or even 50 years, but eventually it will happen.”
The second assertion is more fundamental. Since the state should express “the
Japanese support it. Some officials believe this ought to end the discussion. As
another prosecutor put it, “Nothing more needs to be said.” On this vision of
democracy, majorities should rule, and if most people want the death penalty
the basic argument behind retribution and punishment: a. all guilty people
argument states that real justice requires people to suffer for their wrongdoing,
and to suffer in a way appropriate for the crime. Each criminal should get what
their crime deserves and in the case of a murderer what their crime deserves is
death. The measure of punishment in a given case must depend upon the
atrocity of the crime, the conduct of the criminal and the defenceless and
manner in which the courts respond to the society's cry for justice against the
6
JAPAN’S SECRETIVE DEATH PENALTY POLICY: COUNOURS, ORIGINS,
JUSTIFICATIONS, AND MEANINGS. Available at
http://blog.hawaii.edu/aplpj/files/2011/11/APLPJ_07.2_johnson.pdf
criminals. Justice demands that courts should impose punishment befitting the
crime so that the courts reflect public abhorrence of the crime. (Justices A.S.
Anand and N.P. Singh, Supreme Court of India, in the case of Dhananjoy
Chatterjee) Many people find that this argument fits with their inherent sense of
justice7.
7
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. Available at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/capitalpunishment/for_1.shtml