July 13, 2003

Death penalty is an ancient barbaric and ineffective practice, and does not result in the reduction of crime. It is time perhaps to do away with it

PAKISTAN is one of the several countries in the world that has retained the death penalty on their statute books. Other countries that execute even the mentally ill and juveniles, besides the United States and Pakistan, are Saudi Arabia, Iraq and China. Besides satisfying one’s sense of retribution, the punishment is claimed to result in the prevention of crime. A critical review of somefacts is in order.

It may appear unbelievable, but it is a fact that simple data on executions is not available in Pakistan. The need for an analysis of the age, sex or ethnic profile of those executed, has simply eluded the custodians of the law. The Ministry of Interior or its subordinate departments, including the Bureau of Research, did not have the figures. One should thank the present I.G. of Prisons, Punjab, who collected these figures personally from the jails in Punjab. What follows is based on that limited data. Things couldn’t be any better in other provinces.

Since 1975-76 until 2002, Punjab has executed 1029 persons or 37 prisoners on an average, per annum. 1978-79 was the most murderous year. It witnessed the highest number of executions: a staggering 207. The murder rate did not come down either in Punjab or Pakistan in spite of these large-scale executions. They went up in Pakistan from 3735 (1979) to 4307 (1980) and 4834 (1981).

Executions suddenly declined with the exit of Ziaul Haq. Mr. Junejo allowed the rate to decline from 75 in the previous year to only 7. 1989-90 was the best year in Punjab, because there was not a single execution. Only one execution took place during the next two years.

During the last three years, executions have jumped to 43 a year. Against the 5000 murders a year in Punjab, the execution of four- dozen prisoners is neither here nor there. There are a large number of other crimes to which the death penalty applies. Whenever the government feels helpless in controlling crime, which is always, it enhances the given punishment to death. The increase in crime rate continued as usual however, irrespective of what position one took on state sanctioned murders.

This trend reflects our loss of the control of administration of justice. The death penalty has failed to act as a detterant and has not been effective in checking the ever-increasing crime rate. Why then earn the infamy of being termed a barbaric nation by sticking to the most inhumane punishment?

In these 22 years, between 1975 and 2002, Pakistan has witnessed the doubling of the crime of murder. According to official figures, the number went up from 4625 to 9217. Punjab by virtue of being the most populous province had the highest number of murders and Balochistan obviously the lowest. For the year 2002 the reported murders in Punjab were 4808, in Sindh 1875, NWFP 2253 and Balochistan 209. The rate of murder per million of population for NWFP during the year was the highest at 122, against 63 for Punjab, 60 for Sindh and 31 for Balochistan.

Figures for Balochistan may perhaps not be representative of the actual fact because only five percent of its vast area is policed. 1998 had the highest rate of murder. The figure was 10,000.

The previous three years also showed a very high level. In the absence of an analysis one cannot account for the phenomenon. Trends indicate that the rate of crime increased in tandem but not proportionately to the population’s growth. From 1975 to 2000, Punjab’s population increased from 40.5 m to 76.6 m and the number of murders went up from 4625 to 7832. Similarly Sindh’s population increased from 16.7 m to 31.4 m and the murders increased from 1175 to 1800. In the NWFP the population increased from 9.2 m to 18.5 m (more than 100%) whereas murders almost doubled from 1232 to 2320. As for Balochistan its population increased from 3.3 m to 6.8 m, whereas murders almost doubled from 115 to 209.

Islamabad presents an interesting enigma in this regard. From 1975 to 1980, there were no murders at all, at least according to official figures. Suddenly, in 1981, as many as 23 murders were registered. By the year 2002 the figures went up by more than 200% to 77.

Pakistan has a much lower rate of murder as compared to the US. With a population of 286 million, United States has an annual murder rate of 20,000. Pakistan with a population of 150 million had 9,000 murders in 2002. The murder rate for the US and Pakistan is 70 and 60 per million respectively. The figures for the US are reliable. In case of Pakistan the possibility of understatement can’t be discounted, keeping in view the police’s anxiety to show the rate of crime as low by refusing to register cases.

In the United States, it has been estimated that 10% of those executed are innocent. Since 1976, when the Supreme Court restored the death penalty in the United States, 80 prisoners have been found innocent. Imagine the number of innocent sent to the gallows here and the extent of the miscarriage of justice. An analysis of U.S. figures would show that things in Pakistan ought to be much worse with itsmassive corruption together with the incompetence of the police, prosecutors, magistrates and courts.

At present, there are 3600 inmates on the death row in the US. 20,000 murders take place every year. If all the 3600 inmates are to be executed in one year, they will have to be killed at the rate of 10 a day, every day of the year, Sundays and holidays included.

A large number of them are mentally ill or juvenile. The present rate of 100 executions a year amounts to one death in three days. At that rate it would take 36 years to execute them all. To this should be added, another 350 death sentences every year. The appeal process is so long and expensive that most of the condemned will die of old age. It is pathetic that a ‘civilized society’ like the United States sanctions this barbaric punishment. It doesn’t even pardon juveniles or the insane.

A recent case is that of a temporary reprieve for Mr. Dilma Banks Jr., who would have been the 300th person executed in Texas since the United States Supreme Court allowed the resumption of capital punishment in 1976. He is a 44 years old black man sent to the death row after an all white jury convicted him of the murder of a white person in April 1980. Mr. Banks was 21 years old and an 11th grade school dropout with no criminal record, He would have been killed by lethal injection at 6.00 pm on the 12th March, 03. It was rare for the court to step-in. The stay will remain in effect till such time the court considering his case admits it. In case it decides otherwise, the execution will go ahead.

In another case in the state of Arkansas, the Federal Appeals Court ruled that prisoner Charles Laverne Singleton be forced to take medication to make him sane enough to execute. The decision was close, 6 to 5. The prisoner being insane refused to take medication voluntarily. The law prohibits the execution of the insane. If the drug is forced on the prisoner, he becomes eligible for execution. Judge Heaney, in dissent wrote:” Mr. Singleton had killed a store clerk 25 years back, and was convicted in 1981. Since then he has been on the death row. Can there any punishment more severe than to expect to be killed any day?”

The judge also noted that the majority decision of the court placed before the doctors a hard choice because the treatment of the prisoner may provide him short-term relief but result in ultimate death; whereas leaving him untreated may only condemn him to a world filled with disturbing delusions and hallucinations.

To execute a man, who is severely deranged without treatment and arguably incompetent when treated, is the nadir of barbarity and mindless vengeance.

Death penalty is an ancient barbaric and ineffective practice and does not result in the reduction of crime. The countries that have abolished the death penalty show a better law and order situation.

The crime rate has not decreased with the reintroduction of the death penalty in some of the states of the USA. In most European countries the abolition of the death penalty has been accompanied by a falling crime rate. Pakistan executes less prisoners per annum, an average of 37 persons for Punjab, than the United States (100 per annum). It is high time that Pakistan took a rational position and abolished the abhorrent death penalty to join the civilized nations of the world.

What options does the United States have? Or Pakistan for that matter! They are three. One to do nothing and allow the execution of people, most of them poor or innocent or both, two execute them all on a fast track basis or stop execution all together. The last is the only sensible option. This applies to Pakistan much more appropriately because of its graver miscarriages of justice and the almost certain probability that the weak will suffer at the hands of this corrupt and incompetent law and order machinery.

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