July 14, 1999
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| July 14, 1999 | atimes.com | |
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| Southeast Asia Reversals fuel calls to review death penalty By Johanna Son MANILA - Just days after the Philippines executed its fifth death-row convict, a movement for a review of the country's 1994 law restoring capital punishment appears to be gaining steam. Calls for a review are getting a second look in the wake of two cases in the past week in which the Supreme Court halted the process leading to the execution of two convicted persons. One of the convicted men was adjudged to be mentally handicapped and unable to understand the charges against him. To critics of the death penalty law, these show only too clearly the risks of violations of human rights inherent in having capital punishment on the books. Theodore Te of the Free Legal Assistance Group says it is time for Congress to stop and consider ''the danger of supreme human error'' and ''wrongful executions'' in the capital punishment process. Te was also counsel for the first convict executed in February under the five-year-old law on capital punishment. Activists are joined by legislators in calling for a review of the capital punishment law. Convicts are ''not guinea pigs who must be slaughtered to prove the hypothesis that the death sentence is an effective deterrent to crime,'' argued Representative Hernani Braganza, seeking a review of the capital punishment law. But Justice Secretary Serafin Cuevas believes the death penalty has already begun to deter crimes, saying incidents of heinous crimes had fallen by 11 percent since the first convict was executed in February. To supporters of the death penalty, the Supreme Court's review of capital punishment cases is proof enough that the law can work with enough safeguards. Congressman Ernesto Herrera says the law must be given two years before any effect on crime deterrence can be seen, though Braganza says that the death penalty has reached a point of ''diminishing returns." The furor began on July 8, when the Supreme Court rejected last-minute appeals for a stay in the execution by lethal injection of three men convicted of killing a policeman who had tried to stop them from a robbery attempt in 1994. Two hours later, the court ordered the retrial of 28-year-old Marlon Parazo, citing neurological tests that found the convicted rapist to have the mind of an eight-year-old child and a deaf-mute. In the first case of a retrial ordered since the death penalty law was restored, the court said there had been a miscarriage of justice and ordered that Parazo be re-tried with the assistance of a competent sign language interpreter. On July 10, the Court reduced to life imprisonment the death sentence meted out to a father who had raped his 14-year-old daughter in 1996. This time the reason for the reduction lay in a technicality: the prosecutor failed to state in the charge sheet that the victim was a minor, which is a prerequisite to imposing the death penalty for rape cases. Braganza says the time is now ripe for a congressional review of the death penalty law, given figures showing a high rate of convictions overturned by the Supreme Court. He cited statistics showing that the Supreme Court has been reversing or commuting six out of 10 death row cases that come up for its review. This ''is no fluke and indicates a chink in the justice system,'' Braganza said in a statement. Congressman Roan Libarios added to those statistics and noted that out of 100 death sentences reviewed by the Court, only 42 had been affirmed by the tribunal. A total of 18 were reversed with the acquittal of the convicts and six sent back to lower courts for re-trial. In addition to reversals, Braganza also says the list of heinous crimes punishable by death is too long and constitutes ''overkill.'' Of the 46 crimes considered heinous, 21 are death-mandatory. There are more than 1,000 convicts on death row, most of them for rape. The Catholic Church remains among the most vocal opponents of capital punishment, along with human rights lawyers and activists here and abroad. After the multiple executions last week, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines president Archbishop Oscar Cruz said the executions were ''not only cheapening the value of human life, but also fomenting the spirit of vengreance and hatred." Herrera says that if there is a need to improve the delivery of justice, the answer lies not in repealing the law on capital punishment but in fine-tuning the law to ensure proper quality defense of the accused, especially the poor. ''It's too early [for a review]. Give it [the law] two years,'' he said last week. Over the weekend, leaders of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the legislature, said they were open to tightening weaknesses in the law and the justice system, but not necessarily to considering its repeal. ''We are not entertaining here the repeal of the law,'' Deputy Speaker Eduardo Gullas said, but only ''remedial measures'' to ensure its fair implementation. (Inter Press Service) | |||||||||
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