Rights Watch: Against the retention of death penalty

In the past, almost all countries practised the execution of the death penalty. As much as the idea of human rights, the rule of law and democratic governance has flourished, punishment's theoretical and practical aspects have also changed remarkably. At present, 108 countries worldwide have banned the death penalty provisions. Every State in Europe except one has already abolished the death sentence. There are 36 countries where the death penalty is still permissible; however, they do not apply it in principle. According to the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, almost 48 countries have been refraining from executing the death sentence for the last decade. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) affirms that more than 150 Member States of the United Nations with various legal systems, cultures, and religious backgrounds, have either abolished the death penalty or do not practice it.

About 55 nations upholding and enforcing the death penalty are predominantly non-secular and non-democratic. In 2019, only 20 countries carried out some 657 death executions, with the highest number in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Egypt. From 1990 to 2019, 10 countries executed the death sentence of 149 juvenile offenders; of those, only Iran executed 99. Saudi Arabia executed 184 individuals in 2019; more than half were foreigners. At least 26,604 people were known to be under death sentence worldwide at the end of 2019. In 2020, amongst the 483 persons, who were executed, 16 were women based in Egypt, Iran, Oman, and Saudi Arabia.

According to Amnesty International, nearly 1800 were death-row prisoners in Bangladesh at the end of 2019, whereas more than 220 people were sentenced with the death penalty in 2019. Living Under Sentence of Death, an empirical study recently conducted by the Law Department, University of Dhaka, provides that at least 101 people had been executed in the country since 1991. It appears that 11 executions occurred between 1991 and 2000 compared with 57 between 2001 and 2010, and at least 30 between 2011 and 2019. Sadly, the number of death sentences has been increasing, with 1009 death-row prisoners in November 2011, which reached up to 2000 as of June 2021. The study also reveals that most death-row inmates are from a socio-economically disadvantaged position with low academic background.

Interestingly, in countries where the death penalty is legal, the crime rate has not decreased but increased on many occasions. Evidence shows that crime rates are relatively low in countries where the death penalty has been abolished. During the last 20 years, in the U.S, the states with the death penalty have had 48 to 101 per cent higher homicide rates than the states without the death penalty. Sadly, the death penalty is a punishment that cannot be reversed once it is carried out. There are countless examples where this inhuman sentence has unlawfully and forcefully been imposed innocent people.

Crime and criminality have socio-cultural, economic, psychological, juridical, political, and environmental aspects. Various factors influence criminal behaviour. Much criminological research shows that most people commit crimes not as habitual offenders or recidivists. In many instances, the death penalty results from the judicial, administrative, or procedural error, where the persons executed, were later found guiltless.

Unfortunately, our societal response to crime and offender is vindictive, whereas society is, sometimes, more inclined to vengeance instead of justice, revenge instead of fairness, and retaliation over compassion. In a country where the prison system mainly provides custodial services in place of correctional facilities, that does not help prisoners reform.

Since Bangladesh is a democratic country and its criminal justice system does not comply with faith-based laws; thus, abolishing the death penalty will not be religiously problematic. If we critically analyse the identities of people who have been executed in the country for ordinary crimes so far, with surprise, most of them would be found socio-economically helpless. Interestingly, since the independence of Bangladesh, almost all presidential mercy receivers (sentenced to death) were pardoned merely for their political affiliation. It turns out that there are laws in books on the implementation of the death penalty for multiple heinous offences; nevertheless, in action, the application is not always equal and equitable for all. This picture is nearly similar in every country where the legal provisions of the death penalty exist.

We should recognise that endorsing and executing the death penalty by the criminal justice system might negatively impact the under-trial and convicted prisoners, their families, and society in a broader sense. The lack of good governance and the rule of law stimulates injustice, insecurity, criminality, and corruption in society. The judiciary might have a consensus not to exercise the death penalty, and the legislators should step forward to abolish it from all the legal frameworks. Otherwise, innocent and socio-economically distressed people might be the victim of this inhuman treatment, politically, by mistake, and/or with other prejudice.

The writers are Socio-Legal and Criminological Analysts based in Sweden.