To Hang Or Not To Hang ?

By Saliya Pieris –September 27, 2015

Saliya Pieris

The frenzied calls for the death penalty

The tragic death of five year old Seya has led to frenzied calls for the implementation of the death penalty in Sri Lanka. President Maithripala Sirisena himself weighed in on the question last week when he announced that he will place the question of the death penalty before Parliament. Social media has gone viral with online petitions and calls for the immediate restoration of executions , assuming that is the panacea for crime. One online petition subscribed to by several thousand probably educated and intelligent people , even called for the execution of child abusers without trial!

Such knee jerk reactions seeking to resume implementation of the death penalty are fraught with risks and dangers, the most serious of these dangers being the very real risk of innocent people being executed as a result of being victims to a flawed justice system.

Never abolished

*Five year old Seya

The death penalty in Sri Lanka has never been abolished. Day in and day out the High Courts in different parts of the country impose death sentences on accused found guilty of capital crimes, chief among them the offence of Murder. Apart from Murder there are only a few other Penal Code offences attracting the death penalty. However there have been no charges brought under these sections for decades such charges being waging war against the State and fabricating false evidence leading to the execution of an innocent party. Abetment to suicide also attracts the death penalty although suicide attempted suicide is no longer an offence. Other than murder the crime which attracts the most number of death sentences in Sri Lanka is the possession or trafficking of over 2 grammes of heroin.                                   Read More