poledriver
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
- Messages
- 11,543
Thailand - Zero to gain in execution
A former Thai student sits on death row in a Ho Chi Minh City prison this morning, with her chances of living much longer hanging by a slim thread. A few years ago, Preeyanuch Phuttharaksa was a normal Bangkok university student, caught up in her studies and internet social media. But she made a bad choice when she began smuggling drugs for a Benin-based drug gang. She was caught in Vietnam on her third trafficking trip. She may not deserve leniency, but she also does not deserve to die.
Preeyanuch's last chance to live is an appeal to the mercy of Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang. As in most countries, the head of state in Vietnam has the power to award clemency. As in most countries of Southeast Asia, however, neither the people, the government nor the head of state is particularly sympathetic to those on drug charges.
Southeast Asia, including Thailand, imposes the harshest penalties in the world on those caught trafficking illicit drugs. Almost every country retains the death penalty for those convicted. This policy has prevailed since the 1960s, when Singapore and then Malaysia imposed mandatory death penalties for possession of even minute amounts of drugs _ even for personal use. Laws and precise penalties have been refined in the past 50 years, but penalties have seldom been reduced.
The exception, and rightly so, has been the use of the death penalty. Cambodia is the only country in the region to have abolished capital punishment. But actual executions have become rare.
Even in Singapore, generally considered as the extreme case of a relentlessly unsympathetic anti-drugs crusader, many who are convicted of drug offences these days escape the hangman.
Thailand has kept the death penalty on the books while virtually revolutionising its use. The method of execution has changed from gunshot to lethal injection. At the same time, the justice system has made the death penalty thankfully rare. Prosecutors, courts, the prison system and the appeals structure all work to the end to punish those who threaten society, while trying to make the punishment fit the crime.
Preeyanuch's fate lies in the hope that Mr Sang also thinks this way. On the one hand, the president will consider the terrible choices Preeyanuch made, and the harm she did by trafficking drugs.
On the other, one hopes, the Vietnamese leader will consider whether the execution of the Thai woman will help the battle against drug smuggling and the use of Vietnam in this odious crime.
The truth is that executing Preeyanuch will provide no deterrent to drug traffickers. Indeed, a lengthy prison term for this serial criminal will do more to discourage future smuggling of illicit drugs in and through Vietnam.
It is arguable which is a worse punishment: the death penalty or a life term in a Vietnamese prison.
If the aim is to deter drug trafficking, the long prison sentence is probably more effective. Mr Sang should do the right thing and commute Preeyanuch's death sentence.
Her case, however, should give pause to the ineffective deterrence of organised drug trafficking in Thailand. While Preeyanuch made her own choices, it must be remembered that the west African drug gangs based in Bangkok lie at the root of this terrible situation.
Authorities can and must do better to root out the big-shot gang members who put Preeyanuch into the hands of Vietnam's executioner.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/315932/zero-to-gain-in-execution
A former Thai student sits on death row in a Ho Chi Minh City prison this morning, with her chances of living much longer hanging by a slim thread. A few years ago, Preeyanuch Phuttharaksa was a normal Bangkok university student, caught up in her studies and internet social media. But she made a bad choice when she began smuggling drugs for a Benin-based drug gang. She was caught in Vietnam on her third trafficking trip. She may not deserve leniency, but she also does not deserve to die.
Preeyanuch's last chance to live is an appeal to the mercy of Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang. As in most countries, the head of state in Vietnam has the power to award clemency. As in most countries of Southeast Asia, however, neither the people, the government nor the head of state is particularly sympathetic to those on drug charges.
Southeast Asia, including Thailand, imposes the harshest penalties in the world on those caught trafficking illicit drugs. Almost every country retains the death penalty for those convicted. This policy has prevailed since the 1960s, when Singapore and then Malaysia imposed mandatory death penalties for possession of even minute amounts of drugs _ even for personal use. Laws and precise penalties have been refined in the past 50 years, but penalties have seldom been reduced.
The exception, and rightly so, has been the use of the death penalty. Cambodia is the only country in the region to have abolished capital punishment. But actual executions have become rare.
Even in Singapore, generally considered as the extreme case of a relentlessly unsympathetic anti-drugs crusader, many who are convicted of drug offences these days escape the hangman.
Thailand has kept the death penalty on the books while virtually revolutionising its use. The method of execution has changed from gunshot to lethal injection. At the same time, the justice system has made the death penalty thankfully rare. Prosecutors, courts, the prison system and the appeals structure all work to the end to punish those who threaten society, while trying to make the punishment fit the crime.
Preeyanuch's fate lies in the hope that Mr Sang also thinks this way. On the one hand, the president will consider the terrible choices Preeyanuch made, and the harm she did by trafficking drugs.
On the other, one hopes, the Vietnamese leader will consider whether the execution of the Thai woman will help the battle against drug smuggling and the use of Vietnam in this odious crime.
The truth is that executing Preeyanuch will provide no deterrent to drug traffickers. Indeed, a lengthy prison term for this serial criminal will do more to discourage future smuggling of illicit drugs in and through Vietnam.
It is arguable which is a worse punishment: the death penalty or a life term in a Vietnamese prison.
If the aim is to deter drug trafficking, the long prison sentence is probably more effective. Mr Sang should do the right thing and commute Preeyanuch's death sentence.
Her case, however, should give pause to the ineffective deterrence of organised drug trafficking in Thailand. While Preeyanuch made her own choices, it must be remembered that the west African drug gangs based in Bangkok lie at the root of this terrible situation.
Authorities can and must do better to root out the big-shot gang members who put Preeyanuch into the hands of Vietnam's executioner.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/315932/zero-to-gain-in-execution
8( if this was true, people wouldn't be receiving 20 years to life in prison for anything between simple possession and international trafficking. Non-violent crimes treated as if every time someone made it past customs security, xxx amount of people die for every xx unit of drug being smuggled. This happens when it is known that no deaths have ever been attributed to marijuana use, and a very small percentage of people die compared to the number of people who consuming the 'harder' drugs that actually carry some potential to form a serious addiction (not a 'weed addiction', or bs like that) or cause life concerning health problem when heavily abused (cocaine abuse, IV drug use especially with unsafe practices which is more common in less progressive societies as needles are not as available nor is money).