A new report by the London-based Death Penalty Project explores the use of manda­to­ry death sen­tenc­ing in Malaysia. In the U.S., the Supreme Court barred the use of manda­to­ry death sen­tences in 1976, hold­ing that judges and juries need­ed to con­sid­er the indi­vid­ual dif­fer­ences among defen­dants, out of respect for human dig­in­i­ty. (Woodson v. North Carolina, and oth­er opin­ions). DPP’s report found that the num­ber of exe­cu­tions car­ried out in Malaysia has declined in the last decade even though there have been no major changes in law or reforms in the sys­tem. As part of the research, a poll was con­duct­ed to dis­cern the pub­lic’s sup­port for manda­to­ry death sen­tences. The poll found lit­tle pub­lic oppo­si­tion to abol­ish­ing the manda­to­ry death penal­ty for drug traf­fick­ing and firearms offens­es, though 56% of respon­dents still sup­port­ed a manda­to­ry death sen­tence for mur­der. Read full text of the report.

(R. Hood, ​“The Death Penalty in Malaysia,” Death Penalty Project, July 2013; DPIC post­ed, August 6, 2013. ). See International and Studies.

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