SINGAPORE. LAW SOCIETY URGES END TO MANDATORY DEATH PENALTY

April 5, 2007: the Law Society has called for the scrapping of the mandatory death penalty in Singapore for crimes such as murder, drug trafficking and firearms-related offences. Instead, it proposed that judges be given the discretion to sentence offenders either to death or to a prison term.
The death penalty is mandatory in capital punishment cases in Singapore and judges have no alternative if a person is found guilty. The Law Society is also seeking to decriminalise homosexual acts among consenting men.
The proposals were endorsed by the Law Society’s council and submitted to the ministry of home affairs in response to their proposed changes to the penal code which left the mandatory death penalty unchanged as well as the illegality of homosexual acts. (Sources: DPA, 5/04/2007)