Fate of death row convicts hanging in the air
The fast by the prisoners condemned to death for various crimes atop the Bogambara prison over the weekend brings forth a long-forgotten or long-ignored issue by the authorities. Their demand was to have the capital punishment imposed on them implemented, to have their sentence commuted or to be released. The essence of their demand was to rid their fate of uncertainty. However, it was certain that they were not really demanding gallows, but exerting pressure on the authorities to opt for the other two – commutation or release.
Since a de-facto ban has been in force on the implementation of capital punishment in Sri Lanka since 1976 the people convicted for murder and drug trafficking have to languishinprisonforanunknownperiod,sometimesdecades ortilldeath.Onemightarguethatanyhumanbeingwould prefer to live, no matter languishing in prison for the rest of his life, rather than to die or to be killed. But as a counterargument it could be said that life-long uncertainty in a prison too might similarly be harrowing for life.
The leaders of the country have been in a similar uncertainty with respect to the death sentence since Independence. The government under Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike abolished it, but soon after his assassination in 1959 it was reintroduced and many people involved in crimes were hanged in the Bogambara and Welikada Prisons since then. Again it was decided not to carry out the death penalty in spite of the courts imposing it in 1977; one year after the last person was hanged in the country.
However, governments have been mulling over the implementation of the capital punishment over the years whenever a major crime was committed or the media was harping on mounting crime waves. Two cases in point were the attempts by the People’s Alliance (PA) government under President Chandrika Kumaratunga to carry out the death sentences imposed by the courts. One was in 1999 after a wave of crimes in the country was reported and again in 2004 soon after High Court Judge Sarath Ambepitiya was gunned down.
However on both occasions the government had to back down on its move due to pressure by the human rights lobby in and outside the country. But, a public outcry was created recently over the carrying out of capital punishment when a man reportedly strangled his wife and daughter and burnt his infant son to death in a Colombo suburb. That too subsided with other events such as politics taking precedence over it.
Although the death penalty is not implemented there are occasions when the alleged criminals die or get killed in police lock-ups, prisons and under mysterious circumstances, some of which are similar to those in India called “fake encounters.” Some of those incidents get the silent approval of the majority of the people.
However, it wouldn’t be easy for the authorities to take a decisiononthedemandof theprisonerswhowentonthe fast. If they decide to carry out the capital punishment, especially at a time when the government is being accused of allegations of human rights violations by various international organisations, it would invite a barrage of criticismfromwithinthecountryaswellasfromoutside.On the other hand if the authorities give in to the prisoners’ realdemandsandcommutetheirpunishmentorrelease themitwouldbeamoraleboostforthecriminals.Thusnot only the prisoners but also the authorities seem to be in an uncertainty over the issue.
There is no doubt that the unrest in the Bogambara prison was an upshot of a lacuna in the law of the country. After having indirectly abolished the legal implementation of capital punishment governments for the past 36 years have failed to address the life-long uncertainty of
prisoners on death row.