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Singapore court dismisses mentally disabled man's death sentence appeal

31 Comments
By Martin Abbugao

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31 Comments
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This is just wrong, on so many levels.

- [Nagaenthran] has an IQ of 69 - recognized as a disability - and was coerced into committing the crime. but authorities saying that legal rulings found he "knew what he was doing" at the time of the offense.” -

For trafficking 43 gm (1.5oz/3tbsp) of heroin ?

9 ( +15 / -6 )

For trafficking 43 gm (1.5oz/3tbsp) of heroin ?

Yes, that's why you shouldn't illegally smuggle drugs taped to your leg into a country with a mandatory death penalty for drug smuggling.

-9 ( +8 / -17 )

M. Ravi the lawyer himself has had well publicized mental health issues in the past. But he is better known for his run-ins with the ruling party PAP and also for defending those who have fallen foul of either LHL or his minions in the PAP.

One example being that he chose to defend Roy Ngerng when LHL sued him for defamation even though it was a lost cause.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

While I do not support the application of the death penalty for drug offenses (even though it has no doubt scared off countless drug traffickers from Singapore, keeping it mostly drug free), a wise man once did say :

"Their country - their rules."

-10 ( +4 / -14 )

Disgraceful.

The state should not be permitted to murder people.

End of discussion.

-7 ( +7 / -14 )

I don't support the death penalty ever, but even if I did I definitely wouldn't in the case of a someone with disabilities that could impact their judgement to this extent.

What does it accomplish? Deterrence? The people who coerced him into doing it don't care what happens to their drug mules.

6 ( +12 / -6 )

@Addfwyn - I totally agree. There's no deterrence here...no accomplishment either. The defendant was mentally impaired, he couldn't have understood what the law meant let alone deal with a trafficking scam by a sophisticated gang.

The Court obviously acting under direction of a repressive and dictatorial family dynasty has punished the wrong party. The entire premise of pure punishment rather than discipline just goes to show how lazy and dictatorial the Lee family is.

As they say, you can have an opinion in Singapore as long it's the same as that of the Lee family's opinion.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

If a country still had slavery in place would those people above still be saying "their country, their rules" etc.? Just because it is the law, it doesn't make it morally the right thing to do, nor should the law in foreign countries be beyond criticism, just because those laws are operating in a different country to ones own.

I maintain that the death penalty is never the right thing to do under any circumstances, never mind for such a relatively minor offence as smuggling a tiny amount of drugs and especially not for someone with an IQ so low that it is regarded as a disability. Just makes me feel disdain for that nation, its government and its people (presumably, the majority there vote for and support these policies).

2 ( +7 / -5 )

His death will save lives.

With that hanging over their heads, would be smugglers are going to think twice about strapping drugs to their legs.

-13 ( +2 / -15 )

His death will save lives.

With that hanging over their heads, would be smugglers are going to think twice about strapping drugs to their legs.

Killing someone does not save lives.

Your opinion that someone with a mental disability should be murdered by the state is shameful.

It sickened me to read what you wrote, BertieWooster.

I hope you adopt a more anti-murder stance in the future.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

It's the law of the land, absurd some may say but it's the law

I mean, you could say the same thing about the Taliban beheading people for converting from Islam. Or the Chinese imprisoning Japanese citizens for espionage or putting Uyghurs in concentration camps. It’s the law in those places, but that doesn’t make it right.

Part of being a modern society is the understanding that you do not punish those incapable of understanding why they are being punished. Whether they’re incapable of understanding because of insanity or mental handicap doesn’t matter. It’s the reason children in Japan who kill someone don’t end with up taking a short drop with a sudden stop.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

The death penalty can only exist in a society that believes that punishing the innocent is acceptable. Where criminality and innocence both are punishable offenses.

I don’t oppose the death penalty because I think it’s state-sponsored murder or that no one deserves to die. Far from it. I can think of a long list of people who I believe absolutely deserve a dinner date with a hemp necktie.

My opposition has nothing to do with criminals and everything to do with the innocent. If you accept the existence of the death penalty, then you are accepting that innocent people must also die. As long as the death penalty exists, innocent people will die. This is not opinion. This is not negotiable. This is not debatable. It is fact. Every country that has ever executed people has executed innocent people. The US has. Japan has. There are no exceptions.

And unlike imprisonment, you cannot undo the death penalty if it turns out you’re wrong. You can’t review the evidence or compare the DNA, then go “oops, we screwed up” and unexecute someone. You can let them out of jail. We don’t yet have the ability to overturn a death sentence. I’d ask everyone here who does support the death penalty to ask yourselves this: would you be able to look into the eyes of the loved ones of a wrongly executed person and say “Your loved one’s death was an acceptable price to pay”. I somehow doubt anyone could.

Personally, if you want to keep the death penalty, I think there ought to be some accountability. If an innocent person dies by the hand of the justice system, everyone responsible for putting him or her there should share the same fate. The judge dies, the prosecutor dies, the jury dies. All of em. No trial, no appeal. On the spot.

After all, what’s a few dead innocents in the service of “deterrence”, right?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

AddfwynMar. 29  03:32 pm JST

I don't support the death penalty ever, but even if I did I definitely wouldn't in the case of a someone with disabilities that could impact their judgement to this extent.

What does it accomplish? Deterrence? The people who coerced him into doing it don't care what happens to their drug mules.

This won't solve anything. And he's mentally a mess as well.

letsberealisticMar. 29  04:10 pm JST

Capital punishment is a juvenile reaction of retribution (in this case, on someone who is mentally unwell).

Countries that still have capital punishment please grow up its 2022 the rest of the world's balls dropped years ago.

Singapore is a totalitarian nation that commits abuses for the most trivial offenses. You can't rely on a nation like that to know what real justice is about. Corruption is rampant there.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Singapore is a sick nation in many ways. It is in my opinion what the PRC aspires to be, a rigid politically repressed police state that looks nice from the outside.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

This horrendous country, together with its' neighbour Malaysia, are the home of the world's most vicious and sadistic judicial punishments - corporal and capital.

You only have to Google the extremely nasty and cruel ways they deploy, in terms of bare-buttocks canings / whippings, but be warned, the images will almost certainly make you sick. And who generally are the recipients of such treatments, other than the underclass of underprivileged people, with low-IQ's, even some with mental difficulties, all men from the ages of 18 to 59.

Such vile punishments, which are carried out thousands of times every year, invariably leave their victims crippled or incontinent, and quite often both, and certainly scarred for life. Why the rest of the world has not woken up to this horrendous scenario is a mystery, which is why I'm involved with humanitarian organisations who aim to have this stopped; in the meantime though, Everyone should, maybe must, boycott these places at all times, until they can abandon their barbaric practices and are ready to join a civilised society. They are an utter disgrace.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

If he knew what he was doing then he should hang. The law is the law.

The UK has a long history of meting out capital punishment, and for a long time hanging was the preferred method.

-9 ( +0 / -9 )

Nihon ToraMar. 29  04:22 pm JST

If a country still had slavery in place would those people above still be saying "their country, their rules" etc.?

If a country had slavery (which many do), then we would be arguing about the morality of slavery.

But this article is not about slavery, it is about the death penalty for drug smuggling (which many countries have), so slavery is irrelevant here.

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

If he knew what he was doing then he should hang.

The issue is, he's mentally handicapped to the point where he very likely DIDN'T know what he was doing. He is recognized as being mentally deficient.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

BigYenToday  07:17 am JST

”slavery is irrelevant here”

As is what happened in the UK in the distant past, before they abolished the death penalty.

The death penalty was not abolished too long ago in the UK, and while this article has nothing to do with slavery, it seems some posters here are not aware that Singapore's legal system derives mainly from that of the UK, and where the UK used hanging as a form of capital punishment, Singapore retains that type of capital punishment; hence, the relevance of the original statement.

ReynardFoxToday  11:14 am JST

The issue is, he's mentally handicapped to the point where he very likely DIDN'T know what he was doing. He is recognized as being mentally deficient.

No. Knowledge is always part of the issue in these cases where the death penalty applies.

And per the article:

But authorities have defended his conviction, saying that **legal rulings had found he "knew what he was doing" at the time of the offense.**

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

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