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SCMP Reporter

A five-minute primer on  an issue making headlines

Why is the death penalty back in the news?

Because on Friday morning, Singapore brushed aside protests and hanged Australian drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van, 25. On the same day, convicted killer Kenneth Lee Boyd, 57, became the 1,000th prisoner put to death since the US reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Isn't execution a barbaric way of dealing with criminals?

Opponents of the death penalty say so. They also argue it doesn't deter crime. Canada, for instance, where executions were halted in 1976, has a much lower homicide rate than the US, where the death penalty is still used.  Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs defended the death penalty last year, saying it 'makes Singapore one of the safest places in the world to live and to work'.

There doesn't look to be much prospect of the city state giving up the noose in a hurry either. When the BBC asked Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong two years ago why he didn't know how many people had been executed that year, he reportedly replied: 'I've got more important things to worry about.'

So how many people does Singapore actually execute?

For a relatively small place, rather a lot. According to Amnesty International, Singapore has hanged more than 400 prisoners since 1991, giving it the highest known execution rate in the world relative to its population of just over 4 million people. A lot of those are  drug traffickers.

Isn't that unfair on Singapore? Other countries execute more, don't they?

Yes, particularly the mainland. Last year, of 3,797 people known to have been executed around the world in 25 countries, 3,400 or almost 90 per cent were executed on the mainland.  That compares to just 59 executions in the US.

Which other countries have the death penalty?

The US, Vietnam and Iran.  Last year, all but 3 per cent of all known executions worldwide were carried out either on the mainland  or in one of those three countries. Other countries  with the death penalty include India, Indonesia, Japan, North and South Korea, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Belarus, Jordan and Thailand.

Hong Kong abolished the death penalty decades ago, didn't it?

No. It was actually on the statute books until 1993 although the last execution was carried out in November 1966 when 25-year-old murderer Wong Kai-kei was hanged in Victoria Prison.



Pros and cons of the death penalty