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New term, new chance to reevaluate death penalty
Responding to the current dearth of empirical evidence, DPP, LBH Masyarakat and our partners plan to study the deterrent effects of capital punishment on individual drug use, but also at the systemic level, looking at the nature of drug markets and their social impact on public health and crime rates.
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Illustration: death penalty. (JP/Budhi Button)
I
n the wake of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s reelection, there is now room for renewed — and perhaps reinvigorated — discussion of Indonesia’s continued use of and reliance on capital punishment.
On his campaign trail, Jokowi suggested a shift in focus toward human development and expressed his own desire to “save as many lives as possible”.
As Indonesia seeks to revise its Criminal Code — which is long overdue — the time is ripe for wider discussions on criminal justice, as well as the motivations for and the effects of having the death penalty.
The Death Penalty Project (DPP) returned to Indonesia in June with Prof. Carolyn Hoyle of the University of Oxford and Prof. Jeffrey Fagan of Columbia University, both experts on capital punishment. Working alongside the Community Legal Aid Institute (LBH Masyarakat), the University of Indonesia (UI) and Atma Jaya University, we are discussing the importance of independent academic research to provide accurate information on the death penalty in Indonesia.
The death penalty is in decline worldwide. Currently, 75 percent of the world’s nations have abolished the death penalty and just last year, legal executions fell 31 percent.
Indonesia has imposed a moratorium on executions for almost three years, but according to an Amnesty International report, its courts sentenced at least 48 people to death in 2018, 39 for drug-related crimes.
Read also: 15 foreigners among 48 handed death penalty in Indonesia last year: Amnesty
