Capital punishment in Singapore

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Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Singapore. Each execution in Singapore is usually carried out by long drop hanging in Changi Prison at dawn on a Friday, except once on 20 May 2016 when the execution of Kho Jabing was carried out at 3:30 pm after his appeal for a stay of execution was dismissed that same morning.^[1] In a survey done in 2005 by the Straits Times, 95% of respondents believe that Singapore should retain the death penalty.^[2] Most recently, in 2020, the support for capital punishment in Singapore has tallied to around 80%.^[3]

Singapore has had capital punishment since it was a British colony and became independent before the United Kingdom abolished capital punishment. The Singaporean procedure of hanging condemned individuals is similar to the methods formerly used in the United Kingdom.

In 2012, however, Singapore amended its laws to exempt some cases from the mandatory death sentence.^[4]

Statistics[]

The following table of executions was compiled by Amnesty International from several sources, including statistics supplied by the Ministry of Home Affairs in January 2001 and government figures reported to Agence France-Presse in September 2003.^[5] Numbers in curly brackets are the number of foreign citizens executed, according to information disclosed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Detailed statistics were not released by the Singapore government between 2000 and 2006. Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong told the BBC in September 2003 that he believed there were "in the region of about 70 to 80" hangings in 2003. Two days later he retracted his statement, saying the number was in fact ten.^[21]

The chief executioner, Darshan Singh, said that he has executed more than 850 people during his service from 1959 using the phrase: "I am going to send you to a better place than this. God bless you." This included 18 people on one day, using three ropes at a time; these 18 people were among the 58 rioters who killed four prison officers while they were serving their jail terms in a Pulau Senang island prison in 1963. Singh also said that he has hanged seven people within 90 minutes; these seven men were the culprits of the 1971 Gold Bars triple murders, in which a businessman and illegal gold trader was killed together with his driver and colleague over a total of 120 gold bars.^[22]

Executions peaked between 1994 and 1998; Singapore had the second highest per-capita execution rate in the world during this period, estimated by the United Nations to be 13.83 executions annually per one million people,^[23] just behind Turkmenistan with 14.92. Since then, executions have become far less common, with some years having no executions at all. For example, no one was executed in 2012 and 2013, and two persons were executed in 2014. Nevertheless, in the late 2010s, the number of executions has started to increase again: in 2018, 13 people were executed, the most since at least 2003.^[24] and four people (including two unreported executions) were hanged in 2019. No one has been executed from the start of 2020 to August 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. There were originally two executions scheduled for drug traffickers Syed Suhail bin Syed Zin and Mohd Fadzir bin Mustaffa on 18 September 2020 and 24 September 2020 respectively, but they were subsequently postponed due to stays of execution granted pending last-minute appeals against the death sentences.^[25][26] As a result, there were no one executed in 2020. As of May 2021, no new execution dates were set for the inmates on Singapore's death row, possibly due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and resurgence of community cases (as affected by the mutated Delta variant) in the city state.

Foreign nationals[]

The people on death row include foreign nationals, many of whom were convicted of drug-related offences. These inmates come from a diverse range of countries, including the United States, Australia, Bangladesh, China, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam. Figures released by the Singapore government show that between 1993 and 2003, 36% of those executed were foreigners, including some residents in Singapore (half of Singapore residents are foreigners).^[27]

Legislation[]

Under Section 316 of the Criminal Procedure Code:^[28]

"When any person is sentenced to death, the sentence shall direct that he shall be hanged by the neck till he is dead but shall not state the place where nor the time when the sentence is to be carried out."

Hangings always take place at dawn on Friday and are by the long drop method developed in the United Kingdom by William Marwood. The executioner refers to the Official Table of Drops. The government have said that they:

"... had previously studied the different methods of execution and found no reason to change from the current method used, that is, by hanging."^[29]

It is a normal practice for everyone present in the courtroom to stand and remain silent before the death sentence is passed. The judge will then proceed to announce the death sentence on the accused, who has been found guilty and convicted of the capital offence.

The condemned will be given notice at least four days before execution. In the case of foreigners sentenced to death, their families and diplomatic missions or embassies will be given one to two weeks' notice.^[30]

Amnesty International reports that death row inmates are housed in cells of roughly three square metres (32 square feet).^[5] Walls make up three sides, while the fourth is made up of vertical bars. They are equipped with a toilet, a sleeping mat, and a bucket for washing. Exercise is permitted twice a day for half an hour at a time.^[30] Four days before the execution, the condemned is allowed to watch television or listen to the radio.^[5] Special meals of their choice are also cooked, if within the prison budget. Visiting rights are increased from one 20-minute visit per week to a maximum of four hours each day,^[30] though no physical contact is allowed with any visitors.^[5]

Exemptions[]

Underaged and pregnant offenders[]

Persons under the age of 18 at the time of their offence and pregnant women cannot be sentenced to death. Offenders who were under 18 years old at the time of their offences would be indefinitely detained at the President's Pleasure (TPP), and the normal period of detention was between 10 and 20 years. There were reports of underaged offenders being detained under this practice from 1965 to 2008. These underaged inmates would be released after receiving clemency from the President of Singapore once they were assessed to be suitable for release. In 2010, the law was amended to allow judges to mete out life imprisonment to offenders who were convicted of capital offences but aged below 18 at the time of their crimes instead of subjecting them to indefinite imprisonment under TPP. They would be required to serve a minimum of 20 years before they can be reviewed for possible release. As for women who were pregnant at the time of their sentencing, they would automatically be sentenced to life imprisonment upon their conviction of any capital offences, though there were no such cases occurring in Singapore.^[31]

Offenders of unsound mind[]

Similarly, there were cases of people committing capital crimes but were acquitted due to them being of unsound mind at the time of the offences. These people, once they were proven to be of unsound mind when they commit capital crimes, and once they were found guilty, they will not be given the death penalty but were sentenced to another form of indefinite detention under TPP, different from the type of TPP applied to underaged offenders (at least until 2010). These people will be detained at medical facilities, prisons or at some other safe places in custody, and will be subjected to psychiatric review of their mental conditions until they were suitable for release.^[32]

Pre-1970 jury trials[]

Before they were abolished in 1970, jury trials had been conducted to hear capital cases in Singapore since the British colonial era. Normally, a seven-men jury was set to hear the case together with a single judge, with the jurors randomly selected from members of the public to hear the case. After hearing the case, the judge would summarise the case and the arguments from the defence and the prosecution on behalf of the jurors for their consideration before they reached their final verdict. The jury would take some time to consider if a person was guilty as charged or guilty of a lesser charge or not guilty before they released their final verdict based on the majority or unanimous decision. Based on the final verdict, if a person was found guilty, the judge would convict and impose a penalty to the defendant in accordance to the charge he/she was found guilty of; otherwise, the judge would discharge and acquit the defendant if the jury returned with a verdict of "not guilty". One notable case in which a person was sentenced to death in a jury trial was the trial of Sunny Ang Soo Suan, who allegedly murdered his girlfriend Jenny Cheok Cheng Kid during a scuba diving trip in 1963. Despite the circumstantial evidence and the absence of the victim's body, the seven-men jury unanimously found Ang guilty of murder and sentenced him to death. Ang was eventually hanged on 6 February 1967 after he lost all his appeals to both the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council, and the failure of his clemency plea to President Yusof Ishak.^[33]

The first person to be tried before two judges in the High Court and sentenced to death for a capital case was armed robber Teo Cheng Leong, who fired two missed shots at a police officer while trying to evade capture for an armed robbery in March 1969; he was convicted of unlawfully discharging a firearm in February 1970, for which the crime carries either a sentence of life imprisonment or death before the enactment of the 1973 Arms Offences Act (which mandates the death penalty for illegal discharge of firearms). Teo was subsequently hanged, presumably in 1971 or 1972, while two out of his three other accomplices of the robbery were convicted and served 10 years' imprisonment each for armed robbery; the third accomplice was never found till today.^[34] Another first case was the kidnapping and murder of Ong Beang Leck, the son of a rich tycoon. Five men were involved in the abduction and they had murdered Ong after luring him into a rented car on 24 May 1968; after Ong's death, the killers even sought ransom from Ong's father before their arrests three weeks later. Three of the five kidnappers - Lee Chor Pet (the mastermind and a close friend of the victim), Lim Kim Kwee and Ho Kee Fatt - were sentenced to death for murder on 11 June 1970 and executed in 1973 while the rest - Chow Sien Cheong and Richard Lai Chun Seng - escaped with jail terms of four years each for abetting the abduction and possessing the ransom money.^[35] In the first case of a woman being sentenced to death by two judges in Singapore, dance hostess Mimi Wong Weng Siu was convicted of murdering Ayako Watanabe out of jealousy in 1970 and received the death sentence in the same trial as her ex-husband Sim Woh Kum, who assisted her in killing the Japanese victim, who was the wife of Wong's Japanese boyfriend. The couple were executed on 27 July 1973.^[36][37]

Appeals[]

Since the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Code in 1992, all capital cases have been heard by a single judge in the High Court instead of two judges. After conviction and sentencing, the offender has the option of making an appeal to the Court of Appeal. If the appeal fails, the final recourse rests with the President of Singapore, who has the power to grant clemency on the advice of the Cabinet. In exceptional cases since 2012, the Court of Appeal would be asked to review its previous decisions in concluded criminal appeals where it was necessary to correct a miscarriage of justice, most of which involved drug cases attracting the death penalty. The exact number of successful appeals is unknown. In November 1995, one Poh Kay Keong had his conviction overturned after the court found that his statement to a Central Narcotics Bureau officer had been made under duress.^[5] Another was the case of Nadasan Chandra Secharan, who was initially convicted of murder and sentenced to death by the High Court in June 1996, but later acquitted of murder by the Court of Appeal in January 1997 after they found the evidence against him was insufficient to show that he had murdered his lover Ramipiram Kannickaisparry.^[38][39] Another case was that of Ismil bin Kadar, who was initially sentenced to death for a 2005 robbery-murder case in Boon Lay, but eventually acquitted of the crime as the Court of Appeal found that based on the evidence, Ismil was not involved in the case and that it was solely his younger brother Muhammad bin Kadar who was responsible for the robbery and murder; Muhammad was subsequently executed in April 2015.^[40][41]

Successful clemency applications are thought to be even rarer. Since 1965, the presidential clemency has been granted six times to death row inmates, whose sentences were commuted to life imprisonment (not counting the clemency pleas of the underaged offenders serving TPP).^[42] The last clemency granted to a death row inmate was in April 1998 when President Ong Teng Cheong pardoned a 19-year-old death row inmate and convicted murderer Mathavakannan Kalimuthu, and commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment.^[43][44][45]

Previously, other than the Court of Appeal, offenders were allowed to file criminal or civil appeals to the Privy Council in London, where the judges could hear their appeals once they exhausted all avenues of appeal in Singapore. This avenue of appeal was fully abolished for all criminal and civil matters in April 1994. One case in which an appeal to the Privy Council was successful was the case of murderer Mohamed Yasin bin Hussin. Yasin was 19 years of age when he robbed, raped and murdered a 58-year-old woman in Pulau Ubin in April 1972. He was sentenced to death for murder in 1974 while his 25-year-old accomplice Harun bin Ripin was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane for robbery by night. Yasin also lost his appeal to the Court of Appeal before the Privy Council accepted his appeal and sentenced him to two years' imprisonment for causing death while committing a rash/negligent act. Yasin was subsequently sentenced to another eight years' imprisonment for attempted rape of the victim.^[46]

2012 revision of capital punishment laws[]

In November 2012, capital punishment laws in Singapore were revised such that the mandatory death penalty for those convicted of drug trafficking or murder was lifted under certain specific conditions. Judges were empowered with the discretion to sentence such offenders to life imprisonment, which suggests the offenders spend their entire natural lives in jail with the possibility of parole after 20 years. Before the landmark judgement of Abdul Nasir bin Amer Hamsah's appeal on 20 August 1997, a life sentence meant 20 years' imprisonment, and with one-third remission for good behaviour, it would be 13 years and 4 months for the offender receiving the said sentence.^[47]

Capital offences[]

In addition to the Penal Code, there are four Acts of Parliament that prescribe death as punishment for offences. According to the Think Centre, a Singaporean civil rights group, 70% of hangings are for drug-related offences.^[48] All eight hangings in 2017 were for drug-related offences that year, and 11 of 13 hangings in 2018 were also for drug-related offences.^[15]

Penal Code[]

Under the Penal Code,^[49] the commission of the following offences may result in the death penalty:

• Waging or attempting to wage war or abetting the waging of war against the Government (§121)
• Offences against the President's person (§121A)
• Piracy that endangers life (§130B) (mandatory)
• Genocide resulting in death (§130E) (mandatory)
• Abetting of mutiny (§132)
• Perjury that results in the execution of an innocent person (§194)
• Murder (§302) (mandatory for S300(a) of the Penal Code; discretionary for S300(b), S300(c) and S300(d) of the Penal Code)
• Abetting the suicide of a person under the age of 18 or an "insane" person (§305)
• Attempted murder by a prisoner serving a life sentence (§307 (2)) (mandatory)
• Kidnapping in order to commit murder (§364)
• Robbery committed by five or more people that results in the death of a person (§396)

Since the Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2007,^[50] Singapore no longer allows for the death penalty for rape and mutiny.

Arms Offences Act[]

The Arms Offences Act regulates criminal offences dealing with firearms and weapons.^[51] Any person who uses or attempts to use arms (Section 4) can face execution, as well as any person who uses or attempts to use arms to commit scheduled offences (Section 4A). These scheduled offences are being a member of an unlawful assembly; rioting; certain offences against the person; abduction or kidnapping; extortion; burglary; robbery; preventing or resisting arrest; vandalism; mischief. Any person who is an accomplice (Section 5) to a person convicted of arms use during a scheduled offence can likewise be hanged.

Trafficking in arms (Section 6) is a capital offence in Singapore. Under the Arms Offences Act, trafficking is defined as being in unlawful possession of more than two firearms.

One notable case involving a conviction under this act was the murder of Lim Hock Soon, where Ang Soon Tong triad leader Tan Chor Jin used a Beretta pistol to fatally shoot Lim, a nightclub owner, to death after robbing him and his family of their valuables. Tan was initially charged under the Penal Code for murder but the charge was later amended into one of illegal discharge of firearms under the Arms Offences Act. Tan was eventually convicted and executed by hanging under this Act on 9 January 2009.^[52]

Misuse of Drugs Act[]

The Singapore embarkation card contains a warning to visitors about the death penalty for drug trafficking. Warning signs can also be found at the Johor-Singapore Causeway and other border entries.

Under Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act,^[53][54] any person importing or exporting more than the following quantities of drugs receives a mandatory death sentence:

• 1200 grams of opium and containing more than 30 grams of morphine (§5 and §7, (2)(b));
• 30 grams of morphine (§5 and §7, (3)(b));
• 15 grams of diamorphine (heroin) (diamo (§5 and §7, (4)(b));
• 30 grams of cocaine (§5 and §7, (5)(b));
• 500 grams of cannabis (§5 and §7, (6)(b));
• 1000 grams of cannabis mixture (§5 and §7, (7)(b));
• 200 grams of cannabis resin (§5 and §7, (8)(b));
• 250 grams of methamphetamine (§5 and §7, (9)(b)).

Death sentences are also mandatory for any person caught manufacturing:

• Morphine, or any salt of morphine, ester of morphine or salt of ester of morphine (§6, (2));
• Diamorphine (heroin) or any salt of diamorphine (§6, (3));
• Cocaine or any salt of cocaine (§6, (4));
• Methamphetamine (§6, (5)).

Under the Act:

any person who is proved to have had in his possession or custody or under his control —

1. anything containing a controlled drug;
2. the keys of anything containing a controlled drug;
3. the keys of any place or premises or any part thereof in which a controlled drug is found; or
4. a document of title relating to a controlled drug or any other document intended for the delivery of a controlled drug,

shall, until the contrary is proved, be presumed to have had that drug in his possession.

Furthermore, any person who has a controlled drug in his possession shall be presumed to have known the nature of that drug.^{[citation needed]}

The majority of executions in Singapore are for drug offences. Since 2010, 23 prisoners have been executed for drug offences, while only five have been executed for other offences, such as murder. Death penalty supporters, such as blogger Benjamin Chang, claim that Singapore has one of the lowest prevalence of drug abuse worldwide. Chang claims, for instance, that over two decades, the number of drug abusers arrested each year has declined by two-thirds, from over 6,000 in the early 1990s to about 2,000 in 2011.^[55] The validity of these figures is disputed by other Singaporeans, such as drugs counsellor Tony Tan.^[56] The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime notes that Singapore remains a transit destination for drug traffickers in Asia, drug seizures continue to increase, and heroin drug use within Singapore is continuing to rise.^[57]

Internal Security Act[]

The preamble of the Internal Security Act states that it is an Act to "provide for the internal security of Singapore, preventive detention, the prevention of subversion, the suppression of organised violence against persons and property in specified areas of Singapore, and for matters incidental thereto".^[58] The President has the power to designate certain security areas. Any person caught in the possession or with someone in possession of firearms, ammunition or explosives in a security area can be punished by death.

Kidnapping Act[]

The terms of the Kidnapping Act designate abduction, wrongful restraint or wrongful confinement for ransom as capital offences.^[59]

Public debate[]

Public debate in the Singaporean news media on the death penalty is almost non-existent, although the topic is occasionally discussed in the midst of highly-publicised criminal cases. Efforts to garner public opinion on the issue are rare, although it has been suggested that the population is influenced by a traditional Chinese view which held that harsh punishment deters crime and helps maintain social peace and harmony.^[60] In October 2007, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee said in Parliament that "Certain of us may hold the view that the death penalty should be abolished. But in a survey done two years ago, reported in the Straits Times, 95% of Singaporeans feel that the death penalty should stay. This is something which has helped us to be safe and secure all these years and it is only reserved for a very few select offences."^[2]

Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, a former opposition Member of Parliament, was reportedly only given a few minutes to speak in Parliament on the issue before his comments were rebutted by Ho Peng Kee.^[5][61]

Few other opposition Members of Parliament would bring up the issue, which may be reflective of a population generally indifferent to the matter.

Before the hanging of Shanmugam Murugesu, a three-hour vigil was held on 6 May 2005. The organisers of the event at the Furama Hotel said it was the first such public gathering organised solely by members of the public against the death penalty in Singapore. Murugesu had been arrested after being caught in possession of six packets containing just over 1 kilograms of cannabis after returning from Malaysia. He admitted knowledge of one of the packets, which contained 300 grams, but not the other five.^[62][63] The event went unreported on the partially state-owned media and the police shut down an open microphone session just as the first person began to speak.^[62][64]

After the hanging of Australian citizen Van Tuong Nguyen on 2 December 2005, Susan Chia, province leader of the Good Shepherd Sisters in Singapore, declared that "the death penalty is cruel, inhumane and it violates the right to life." Chia and several other nuns comforted Nguyen's mother two weeks before his execution for heroin trafficking.^[65]

Singapore's death penalty laws have drawn comments in the media. For example, science fiction author William Gibson, while a journalist, wrote a travel piece on Singapore that he sarcastically titled "Disneyland with the Death Penalty".^[66]

In 2010, British author Alan Shadrake published his book Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock, which was critical of the Singapore judicial system.^[67] Shadrake was arrested whilst promoting the book in Singapore and later sentenced to six weeks in prison for contempt of court. He is also charged with criminal defamation. The case attracted worldwide attention, putting the Singapore legal system in the spotlight.^[68][69] Shadrake apologised to the court if he had offended the sensitivities of the judiciary and did not mean to undermine the judges or the judiciary, but stood by his book, apart from one small mistake.^[70]

My so-called apology was to merely point out that my book was sub-titled Singapore Justice in the Dock – NOT Singapore Judiciary in the Dock. I did not 'apologise' at all and welcomed the prison sentence which drew even more attention to the real issues. The many cases I exposed where various judges sentenced some accused to death despite dubious, suspect evidence concocted by the police and their informers while others with powerful countries behind them had their charges inexplicably reduced to a non-hanging offence. But Judge Loh completely ignored the evidence I produced in Once a Jolly Hangman even though he claimed to have read it from cover to cover. This proved again that the judiciary is not independent from the executive – a fact which the International Bar Association ably pointed out in its 2008 report on Singapore – and that the judiciary has to do the government's bidding when it suits them.

The judge, Quentin Loh, dismissed his apology as "nothing more than a tactical ploy in court to obtain a reduced sentence".^[71] Shadrake's conviction for scandalising the court was upheld by the Court of Appeal.^[72]

Law Society review[]

In December 2005, the Law Society revealed that it has set up a committee, named Review Committee on Capital Punishment, to examine capital punishment in the country. The President of the Society, Senior Counsel Philip Jeyaretnam, said that the main focus of the review was on issues regarding administering the death penalty such as whether it should be mandatory. A report of the review would be submitted to the Ministry of Law.^[73] On 6 November 2006, they were invited to give its views on proposed amendments to the Penal Code to the Ministry of Home Affairs. In their report, issued on 30 March 2007, they argued against the mandatory death penalty:

The death penalty should be discretionary for the offences where the death sentence is mandatory – murder, drug trafficking, firearms offences and sedition – a position similar to that for the offence of kidnapping. There are strong arguments for changing the mandatory nature of capital punishment in Singapore. Judges should be given the discretion to impose the death penalty only where deemed appropriate.^[74]

Singapore government's response[]

The Singapore government states that the death penalty is only used in the most serious of crimes, sending, they say, a strong message to potential offenders. They point out that in 1994 and 1999 the United Nations General Assembly failed to adopt United Nations resolutions calling for a moratorium on the death penalty worldwide, as a majority of countries opposed such a move.

Singapore's Permanent Representative to the United Nations wrote a letter to the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions in 2001 which stated:

"... the death penalty is primarily a criminal justice issue, and therefore is a question for the sovereign jurisdiction of each country [...] the right to life is not the only right, and [...] it is the duty of societies and governments to decide how to balance competing rights against each other."^[5]

In January 2004, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a response to Amnesty International's report, "Singapore: The death penalty - A hidden toll of executions". It defended Singapore's policy to retain the death penalty, predicating its arguments on, among others, the following grounds:^[30]

• There is no international consensus on whether the death penalty should be abolished.
• Each country has the sovereign right to decide on its own judicial system, taking into account its own circumstances.
• The death penalty has been effective in keeping Singapore one of the safest places in the world to work and live in.
• The application of the death penalty is only reserved for "very serious crimes".

The Ministry of Home Affairs also refuted Amnesty International's claims of the majority of the executed being foreigners, and that it was "mostly the poor, least educated, and vulnerable people who are executed". The Ministry stated: "Singaporeans, and not foreigners, were the majority of those executed... Of those executed from 1993 to 2003, 95% were above 21 years of age, and 80% had received formal education. About 80% of those who had been sentenced to capital punishment had employment before their convictions."^[30]

Following the hanging of Van Tuong Nguyen in 2005, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reiterated the government's position, stating that "The evil inflicted on thousands of people with drug trafficking demands that we must tackle the source by punishing the traffickers rather than trying to pick up the pieces afterwards... It's a law which is approved of by Singapore's inhabitants and which allows us to reduce the drug problem."^[75]

Prior to the United Nations General Assembly's voting on a moratorium on the death penalty in November 2007, Singapore's ambassador Vanu Gopala Menon said, "My delegation would like to remind this committee that capital punishment is not prohibited under international law. Yet it is clear that the sponsors of this draft resolution have decided that there can only be one view on capital punishment, and that only one set of choices should be respected... [the death penalty] is an important component of the administration of law and our justice system, and is imposed only for the most serious crimes and serves as a deterrent. We have proper legal safeguards in place to prevent any miscarriage of justice."^[76]

In the most recent news, in October 2020, Law Minister K. Shanmugam emphasised that the death penalty is a powerful deterrent to capital crimes in Singapore. He cited the statistics of the rate of firearms-related offences and kidnapping cases had dropped dramatically after the introduction of the death penalty as evidence of its deterrence. Shanmugam also cited that after the government mandates the death penalty since 1991, the average net amount of opium trafficked dropped by 66% and many drug traffickers are illegally transporting less and less amounts of drugs to avoid the punishment. The government conducted surveys on Singaporeans and non-Singaporeans, and the majority of both groups responded that the death penalty is more effective than life imprisonment in discouraging people from committing capital offences.^[77]

Impact on official debate and discussion in the United States[]

In 2012, a couple of American elected officials and office-seekers have suggested that Singapore's success in combating drug abuse should be examined as a model for the United States. Michael Bloomberg, a former Mayor of New York City, said that the United States could learn a thing or two from nations like Singapore when it came to drug trafficking, noting that "executing a handful of people saves thousands and thousands of lives."^[78] The last execution in New York took place in 1963. Several courts have ruled that the death penalty violates the New York Constitution (see People v. LaValle). In 2007, the state of New York abolished the death penalty. 22 states, plus Washington D.C., have abolished the death penalty, with the most recent being Virginia in 2021. However, certain states, such as Texas and Georgia, still regularly execute prisoners for aggravated murder.

Even when an American politician mentions capital punishment in Singapore, the application of the death penalty in the United States is limited by the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution to only murders committed by mentally competent adults and crimes against the state. For example, former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich repeated his longstanding advocacy for Singaporean methods in the United States' War on Drugs during campaign interviews and speeches.^[79]

Notable cases of people sentenced to death[]

Murder[]

• 1965: Tan Kheng Ann (alias Robert Black) and 17 others who led the Pulau Senang prison riot. They were found guilty of the murders of a prison officer and his three assistants, and hanged in October 1965.^[80][81]
• 1967: Sunny Ang, a law student who killed his girlfriend Jenny Cheok for her insurance during a scuba diving trip near Sisters' Islands in 1963. He was the first person in Singapore to be convicted of murder solely based on circumstantial evidence and without a body.
• 1968: Usman bin Haji Muhammad Ali and Harun Thohir, two Indonesian marines who carried out the 1965 MacDonald House bombing which killed three people. They were convicted of murder and hanged on 17 October 1968.
• 1973: Mimi Wong Weng Siu and her husband Sim Woh Kum, the first couple to be sentenced to death in Singapore. Both Wong and Sim were convicted of the 1970 murder of Ayako Watanabe, the wife of Wong's Japanese lover, and hanged on 27 July 1973. Wong was also the first woman to be executed for murder in Singapore since its independence.
• 1975: Andrew Chou Hock Guan, his brother, and five other accomplices were hanged on 28 February 1975 for the Gold Bars triple murders.^[82][83][84]
• 1984: Ong Hwee Kuan, Ong Chin Hock and Yeo Ching Boon were hanged on 24 February 1984 for the robbery, kidnapping and murder of a policeman, Lee Kim Lai, on 25 April 1978.^[85][86]
• 1988: Adrian Lim, Tan Mui Choo, and Hoe Kah Hong, the three perpetrators of the 1981 Toa Payoh ritual murders, were hanged on 25 November 1988.
• 1988: Sek Kim Wah, who committed the 1983 Andrew Road triple murders and another double murder near Seletar Road, was hanged on 9 December 1988.^[87][88]
• 1992: Vasavan Sathiadew and his two Thai accomplices were hanged on 23 October 1992 for the 1984 murder of Frankie Tan.^[89]
• 1995: Flor Contemplacion, a Filipino domestic worker hanged in March 1995 for murdering another Filipino domestic worker and a four-year-old boy.
• 1996: John Martin Scripps, a British spree killer hanged in April 1996 for murdering three tourists.
• 1998: Asogan Ramesh Ramachandren and Selvar Kumar Silvaras were hanged in May 1998 for the 1996 murder of a gangster.
• 2001: Julaiha Begum, her lover Loganatha Venkatesan and Venkatesan's friend Chandran Rajagopal who were hanged on 16 February 2001 for the murder of Julaiha's husband T. Maniam.
• 2002: Anthony Ler Wee Teang was hanged on 13 December 2002 for hiring a teenager to murder his wife.^[90]
• 2006: Took Leng How, a Malaysian hanged in November 2006 for the 2004 murder of an eight-year-old girl.
• 2007: Leong Siew Chor, a factory supervisor who killed his lover Liu Hong Mei. He was hanged on 30 November 2007.^[91]
• 2008: Mohammed Ali bin Johari was hanged on 19 December 2008 for the 2006 rape and murder of his stepdaughter.^[92]
• 2009: Tan Chor Jin, alias Tony Kia, nicknamed the "One-eyed Dragon" in Singapore media, was executed on 9 January 2009 for illegally discharging a firearm and killing 41-year-old nightclub owner Lim Hock Soon by shooting.
• 2014: Wang Zhijian, a Chinese national sentenced to death in 2012 for the 2008 Yishun triple murders. The Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal in 2014.
• 2016: Kho Jabing, a Malaysian hanged on 20 May 2016 for the 2008 robbery and murder of a construction worker.
• 2019: Micheal Anak Garing, a Malaysian hanged on 22 March 2019 for the murder of a construction worker during a series of armed robberies in 2010.^[93]
• Iskandar bin Rahmat, a former police officer sentenced to death in December 2015 for the 2013 Kovan double murders. As of May 2021, Iskandar is still awaiting execution.^[94][95]

Drug trafficking[]

• 1994: Johannes van Damme, a Dutch engineer hanged on 23 September 1994 for smuggling heroin.
• 2005: Shanmugam Murugesu, a Singaporean former athlete and military man hanged in May 2005 for smuggling cannabis.^[96]
• 2005: Van Tuong Nguyen, an Australian hanged in December 2005 for smuggling heroin.
• 2007: Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, a Nigerian hanged in January 2007 for smuggling diamorphine.
• 2016: Chijioke Stephen Obioha, a Nigerian hanged on 18 November 2016 for importing cannabis into Singapore.

Changes to the law[]

Amendments and impact[]

In July 2012, the government decided to make a review of the mandatory death penalty applied to certain drug trafficking or murder offences. In the midst of this review, a moratorium was imposed on all the 35 pending executions in Singapore at that time (7 for murder and 28 for drug trafficking). During that period of the review of the mandatory death penalty, one convicted murderer, , who made headlines for the violent murder of his girlfriend in 2008, won his appeal in October 2012 and was re-sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment for culpable homicide.^[97][98] Wang Zhijian, a Chinese national who committed the 2008 Yishun triple murders, was sentenced to death for a conviction of murder under Section 300(a) of the Penal Code in November 2012,^[99][100] and another unnamed death row convict died of natural causes while in prison.^[101]

In January 2013, the law was amended to make the death penalty no longer mandatory for certain capital offences. The judges in Singapore were given a discretion to impose a sentence of life imprisonment with mandatory caning for offenders who commit murder but had no intention to kill, which came under Sections 300(b), 300(c) and 300(d) of the Penal Code. The death penalty remains mandatory only for first-degree murder offences committed with intention to kill, which came under section 300(a) of the Penal Code. This discretion is similarly applied to those convicted of drug trafficking, provided that they only act as couriers, suffering from impaired mental responsibility (e.g. depression), substantively assisting the authorities in tackling drug trafficking activities or any other conditions. For drug traffickers who were not being condemned to death but to life-long incarceration with caning, they should receive not less than 15 strokes of the cane. Drug traffickers who were suffering from diminished responsibility will be spared from caning while serving a mandatory life sentence for their crimes. Despite this discretion, a sentence of life imprisonment is the mandatory minimum penalty one will face for capital murder or drug trafficking offences in these circumstances.

The first person to be convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for a capital offence under the amended death penalty laws was Singaporean drug trafficker Abdul Haleem bin Abdul Karim on 10 April 2013; he was certified to have been acting as a courier and assisted the authorities in disrupting the drug trafficking activities after both his and his accomplice's arrest on 6 May 2010 for trafficking in 72.5 g of pure heroin. Abdul Haleem was also the first drug trafficker to be spared the gallows after being found guilty under the amended laws of Singapore. In addition to his life sentence, Abdul Haleem, who pleaded guilty to two charges of drug trafficking, was also given the maximum sentence of 24 strokes of the cane.^[102][103] Abdul Haleem's accomplice and friend, Muhammad Ridzuan bin Md Ali, on the other hand, was sentenced to death for drug trafficking and later hanged on 19 May 2017.^[104]

Meanwhile, on 13 March 2014, the first murderer to be convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment under the new death penalty laws was former prison officer Lim Wee Thong, who initially faced a first-degree murder charge and thus the mandatory death sentence for killing his girlfriend Loh Nyuk Moi in 2011 but after the prosecution reduced the charge to a second-degree murder charge (under Section 300(b) of the Penal Code), leading to Lim receiving a life sentence with 24 strokes of caning. Lim, who was married with a son when he started four simultaneous affairs with Loh and three other females, had met up with Loh in her then recently-sold Yung Ping Road flat, where he stabbed her ten times and even stole $14,500 from her two bank accounts after murdering her in order to pay off his debts. Lim's sentencing took place nearly a year before the prosecution's landmark appeal against convicted killer Kho Jabing's life sentence, which coined the main sentencing guidelines for murder under the new capital punishment laws.^[105]

After the changes to the law, the first executions to take place were those of drug traffickers Tang Hai Liang and Foong Chee Peng on 18 July 2014, after their sentences were finalized and their refusal to further appeal against their sentences.^[101]

Re-sentencing of death row inmates[]

The amendments of the law also offered a chance for all the death row inmates to have their cases to be reviewed for re-sentencing.^[106][107] There were also some cases where some death row inmates declined to be re-sentenced, including Tang Hai Liang and Foong Chee Peng (whose hangings were mentioned in the above paragraph).^[101] The below cases are the known cases where some death row inmates applied for re-sentencing, as well as the details of their respective crimes and outcomes of their re-sentencing applications.

Murder[]

• 17 April 2015: was hanged after spending five years and nine months on death row for the robbery and murder of an elderly housewife in 2005. He was sentenced to death by the High Court in 2008 and had his appeal dismissed by the Court of Appeal in 2011. He applied for re-sentencing when changes to the law took effect on 2013, but the Court of Appeal denied his application in 2014.^{[108][40][109][110][47][111][112]}
• 16 July 2013: , a Malaysian who partnered with his childhood friend Ellary Puling to commit a series of six robberies in 2008, resulting in the death of one of the victims. While Ellary was sentenced to 19 years' imprisonment and 19 strokes of caning for robbery with hurt, Fabian was meanwhile convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 2011. The Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal against his sentence in 2012. After amendments to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced to life imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane.^{[113][47][114]}
• 28 August 2013: , an Indian national who robbed and murdered a Filipino prostitute in 2010, was initially sentenced to death in 2012. He appealed to the Court of Appeal in 2012 but was still found guilty of murder. After changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced in 2013 to life imprisonment and 18 strokes of the cane.^{[115][116][117][118][119]}
• 12 November 2013: , a Bangladeshi who murdered his Indonesian girlfriend in 2007. He was initially found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in 2010, and had his appeal to the Court of Appeal dismissed in 2012. After changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced to life imprisonment and 10 strokes of the cane. He tried filing an appeal for a lighter sentence but was turned down by the Court of Appeal in 2014.^{[120][121][122]}
• 13 November 2013: , a Chinese national who robbed and murdered a taxi driver in 2009, was initially convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 2011. He had also lost his appeal to the Court of Appeal in 2012. When changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced to life imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane. The prosecution filed an appeal but withdrew it in 2015 in light of the outcome of the prosecution's appeal against Kho Jabing's life sentence.^{[123][124][125][126][127][128]}
• 20 May 2016: Kho Jabing, a Malaysian hanged for the 2008 robbery and murder of a construction worker. After changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was initially re-sentenced to life imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane on 14 August 2013. However, after the prosecution appealed, he was sentenced to death again in a landmark ruling by a majority decision of 3-2 in the Court of Appeal and eventually hanged in the afternoon of the same day his final appeal was dismissed.^{[129][130][131]}

Drug trafficking[]

• 17 November 2013: Yong Vui Kong, a Malaysian found guilty of drug trafficking in 2007 and sentenced to death in 2008. He lost multiple appeals against his sentence to the Court of Appeal and President of Singapore. However, when changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced to life imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane.^{[132][47][133]}
• 6 January 2014: , a Singaporean found guilty of trafficking heroin in 2008 and sentenced to death in 2012. When changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced in 2014 to life imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane.^[47][134]
• 3 March 2014: , a Malaysian found guilty of trafficking heroin in 2009 and sentenced to death in 2011. When changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced in 2014 to life imprisonment on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to him suffering from depression when he committed the crime.^[47][135]
• 27 May 2014: , a Singaporean convicted of trafficking heroin in 2008 and sentenced to death in 2009. When changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced in 2014 to life imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane.^{[47][136][137]}
• 28 October 2014: , a Malaysian convicted of trafficking heroin in 2008 and sentenced to death in 2009. When changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 on the grounds that he was intellectually challenged and suffering from depression at the time of the crime.^{[138][139][140]}
• 20 April 2015: , a Malaysian convicted of trafficking heroin in 2008 and sentenced to death in 2010. He lost his appeal to the Court of Appeal in 2010. After changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced in 2015 to life imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane. His boss and accomplice, Pang Siew Fum, was also re-sentenced to life imprisonment on the same day, due to Pang suffering from depression at the time of the crime.^[141]
• 22 April 2016: , a Singaporean and chronic ketamine abuser who was arrested on 20 January 2010 for trafficking more than 100g of heroin into Singapore at Woodlands Checkpoint. He was found guilty and sentenced to death in September 2011. Phua, who lost his three previous appeals against the sentence between July 2012 to September 2015, was granted a re-trial three years after the government implemented new changes to the death penalty laws (in 2013). He was diagnosed to be suffering from persistent depressive disorder, and the condition, coupled with his chronic ketamine addiction, was argued by Phua's lawyers as sufficient to impair his mental responsibility at the time of the crime. The High Court accepted the defence's arguments and thus re-sentenced Phua, then 30 years old, to life-long incarceration on 22 April 2016, with his sentence backdated to the date of his remand.^{[142][143][144]}
• 18 November 2016: Chijioke Stephen Obioha, a Nigerian convicted of trafficking cannabis in 2007 and sentenced to death in 2008. He lost his appeal to the Court of Appeal in 2010. When changes to the law took effect in 2013, he filed for re-sentencing in 2015 but withdrew in 2016. Later, he filed another appeal and a plea for presidential clemency but failed. He was eventually hanged on 18 November 2016 along with Malaysian drug trafficker Devendran A/L Supramaniam.^[145]
• Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, a Malaysian convicted of trafficking heroin in 2009 and sentenced to death in 2010. When changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing but had his application rejected. His appeals to the Court of Appeal were dismissed in 2019. As of May 2019, he planned to appeal to the President of Singapore for clemency.^[146][147]

Sentencing guidelines of the discretionary death penalty for murder (2015 – now)[]

On 14 January 2015, a landmark ruling was made by the Court of Appeal in the prosecution's appeal against the re-sentencing case of one former death row inmate, Kho Jabing, who was re-sentenced to life imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane for the murder of Chinese national Cao Ruyin during a robbery under Section 300(c) of the Penal Code of Singapore. The landmark judgement in which the court, by a majority decision of 3–2, overturned Kho's life sentence and sentenced him to death a second time, had set the main guiding principles for all judges in Singapore to decide if the death penalty is appropriate for those murder cases committed with no intention to kill while exercising their discretion to impose either a life term or death for offenders responsible for such.^[148]

The main guiding principles set were as such:

1. Whether an offender displayed viciousness during the time of the commission of the offence of murder;
2. Whether an offender demonstrated a blatant disregard for human life at the time of the killing; and
3. Whether the offender's actions sparked an outrage of the feelings of the community.

In Kho's case, the majority three of the five judges were satisfied that Kho, who had used a tree branch to bash Cao's head repeatedly (resulting in a completely shattered skull that caused Cao to die in a coma six days after the attack), had demonstrated both a blatant disregard for human life and viciousness while committing the crime, and Kho's actions were such that they had outraged the feelings of the community. Due to this, Kho was once again given the death penalty and he was eventually hanged on 20 May 2016.^[130][131]

Consequently, the guiding principles from Kho's case also impacted on several subsequent murder cases and influenced the sentencing or appeal outcomes of these murder cases, which include the 2010 Kallang slashing,^[149][150] the 2016 ,^[151] the 2016 ,^[152][153] and the 2013 ,^{[154][155][156]} etc.

List of death row inmates pardoned by the President[]

• 1978: Mohamad Kunjo s/o Ramalan, a Singaporean convicted of murdering a lorry driver in 1975 and sentenced to death in 1976. After losing his appeals against the death sentence over the next two years, he filed for clemency and was pardoned by President Benjamin Sheares in 1978 and had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment.^{[157][158][159][160]}
• 1980: Bobby Chung Hua Watt, a Singaporean convicted of murdering his brother-in-law's brother in 1975. He was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. After losing his appeal against his death sentence, he was initially scheduled to be hanged on 18 January 1980. However, on 15 January 1980, President Benjamin Sheares granted him clemency and his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was released from prison in 1993 for good behaviour after serving at least two-thirds of his life sentence.^{[161][162][163]}
• 1983: Siti Aminah binte Jaffar, a Singaporean convicted of drug trafficking in 1977 and sentenced to death in 1978 along with her lover, Anwar Ali Khan. The two of them appealed to President Devan Nair for clemency in 1983. Anwar's plea was rejected and he was hanged, but Siti's was accepted and she had her sentence commuted to life imprisonment.^{[164][165][160]}
• 1993: Sim Ah Cheoh, a Singaporean convicted of drug trafficking in 1985 and sentenced to death in 1988 along with her two accomplices. President Wee Kim Wee accepted her plea for clemency in 1992 so her death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment; her two accomplices, however, were hanged in 1992. While serving her life sentence, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1993 and had at most a year to live. She appealed to President Ong Teng Cheong for clemency to be released so that she could spend the final moments of her life with her family. The President granted her clemency so she was released on 16 February 1995 and eventually died on 30 March in the same year.^{[166][167][168][169][170][171][172][173][174][163]}
• 1992: Koh Swee Beng, a Singaporean who killed a man who assaulted his foster father in 1988. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1990. He lost his appeal against his death sentence in 1991 but was eventually granted clemency by President Wee Kim Wee on 13 May 1992 (two days before he was scheduled to be hanged) and had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. He was released from prison in September 2005 for good behaviour after serving at least two-thirds of his life sentence.^[175][163]
• 1998: Mathavakannan Kalimuthu, a Singaporean convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1996 along with his two friends. After losing their appeals in 1997, the three of them petitioned to President Ong Teng Cheong for clemency in 1998. The President accepted only Mathavakannan's plea so his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment; the other two had their pleas rejected and were subsequently hanged. Mathavakannan was eventually released in 2012 after spending about 16 years in prison.^{[176][177][178]}

In popular culture[]

In 2016, Singaporean director Boo Junfeng directed and released a film titled Apprentice, starring Firdaus Rahman and Wan Hanafi Su. The film, which narrates the fictional story of newly-appointed prison officer and executioner Aiman Yusof, touched on the subject of the death penalty in Singapore and an executioner's prespective of the practice, as well as the experiences and ostracisation of the families when their loved ones were tried and executed. The director also revealed that he had gathered information through interviews of the retired executioners, imams and priests who counselled the death row inmates, and also the families of the executed prisoners while producing the film. The film, which was released in several international film festivals, was met with positive public responses and it attracted both nominations and awards for the director and production team.^{[179][180][181][182]}

In Singapore, there were local crime shows like Crimewatch and True Files which re-enact the real-life crimes in Singapore. Among these cases, there were murder and drug trafficking cases which attract the death penalty in the city-state. Often, the re-enactments of these capital cases would also show the final verdicts of the convicts, where it revealed the dates of their sentencing and/or executions. Notably, executed criminals like British serial killer John Martin Scripps, notorious wife-killer Anthony Ler and child rapist and killer Adrian Lim and many more had their cases featured in these re-enactment shows since the 1980s till the present.^{[183][184][185][186]}

See also[]

• Crime in Singapore
• Law of Singapore
• List of major crimes in Singapore (before 2000)
• List of major crimes in Singapore (2000–present)

References[]

• Aglionby, John (8 May 2005). "Singapore finally finds a voice in death row protest". The Observer. London. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
• "Singapore death penalty shrouded in silence". Reuters. 12 April 2002. Archived from the original on 2 September 2007. Retrieved 30 November 2005.
• "Singapore clings to death penalty". Agence France-Presse. 21 November 2005.

External links[]

• Singapore — The death penalty: A hidden toll of executions from Amnesty International
• The Singapore Government's Response To Amnesty International's Report from 30 January 2004
• Asia Death Penalty monitors the death penalty in Asia, including in Singapore
• Singapore: Death Penalty Worldwide Academic research database on the laws, practice, and statistics of capital punishment for every death penalty country in the world.