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SINGAPORE – Death row inmates seeking to have their sentences stayed after exhausting their legal options must show reasons why they did not submit the request earlier, under a new rule in consider it in Parliament.
On Monday, the Chief Parliamentary Secretary for Law Rahayu Mahzam presented a Bill proposing changes to the law to clarify the way for prisoners to submit challenges after authorization or decision, which the Court of Appeal.
Examples of post-appeal challenges include the following: a request for a stay of execution, a judicial review request challenging the President’s decision not to grant a pardon, and a legal review application challenging the Public Prosecutor’s decision not to issue a certificate of substantial assistance, which designates drug traffickers for life imprisonment.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice (MinLaw) said: “There are many applications by prisoners awaiting sentence at the last minute, after all appeals have been exhausted.
“The proposed amendments will clearly set out the conditions for these requests, and the court will have the power to issue a challenge even if they do not follow this procedure.”
Arguably, the most famous case involving a dead prisoner is Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, a Malaysian convicted of selling 42.72g of heroin in 2010 and sentenced to death.
His appeal was rejected in 2011. Since 2015, he has filed seven appeals challenging his death sentence.
Days before he was scheduled to be hanged on November 10, 2021, his lawyer M. Ravi filed a petition in the High Court, seeking a judicial review of the impending execution. This was rejected and Ravi filed an appeal.
Mr Ravi also filed a separate application in the Court of Appeal, asking for a stay of execution so that Nagaenthran could be assessed by a team of psychiatrists.
In its ruling dismissing both challenges in March 2022, the Court of Appeal said both applications were a “violent road” forward.
On Monday, MinLaw said that under the proposed new rules, the Court of Appeal will only hear the appeals of the prisoners after the death row inmates have appealed and issued a stay of the sentence. .
The inmate must apply for permission to appear before a single judge to file a post-appeal request.
When requesting permission, the prisoner must state, among other things, the reasons for the challenge and the reasons for not giving up immediately.
If approved, the appeal must be filed within a specified time, and the trial will be decided before a panel of three or more judges within a specified time.
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