PRESIDENT Duterte, in his fifth State of the Nation Address on July 27, called on Congress for the swift passage of a law reimposing death penalty through lethal injection for offenses under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act. Twelve bills seeking to revive capital punishment are currently pending before the House of Representatives Committee on Justice (House Bills 741, 1380, 1588, 1800, 1806, 1807, 2026, 2092, 3128, 3256, 3261, and 4743), with some bills specifying any of the following methods in carrying out the death sentence – lethal injection, hanging, or firing squad.
Will capital punishment effectively deter the commission of crimes?
It is interesting to note that in all of the proposals to reinstate the death penalty, not a single credible research or study had been cited nor conducted to support the assertions of the bills’ authors that the said measure will effectively deter the commission of heinous crimes, including drug-related offenses or those related to rebellion or even terrorism.
What has been clearly illustrated in several studies, research, and surveys is the assertion that capital punishment simply does not effectively deter crimes.
The United Nations (UN) has undertaken comprehensive studies and survey on the relationship between death penalty and homicide rates, concluding that “research has failed to provide scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment.”
Similarly, leading criminologists around the world have also weighed in on the contention that the death penalty is a superior crime deterrent, leading to the conclusion that “the death penalty does not add deterrent effects to those already achieved by long imprisonment.”
A related report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, composed of former heads of States, independent human rights experts from the UN and nongovernment organizations, and business groups, found out that countries that have imposed death penalties or harsh laws resulting in mass arrests and imprisonment of drug users did not lower levels of drug use and related problems, compared to countries with a more tolerant approach.
Also, a survey released in October 2018 by the Social Weather Stations for the Commission on Human Rights noted that seven out of 10 Filipinos surveyed are not in favor of imposing the death penalty on a number of serious crimes.
With all these scientific studies and surveys disproving the argument that death penalty is a crime deterrent, why reimpose?
How will death penalty help ease hunger, unemployment during COVID? These and the wanting government response are the real and urgent problems today. Death penalty plays no role in responding to the worst health and economic crisis the country is facing.
