ELC Death Penalty

Critial Analysis Based On Article ‘Death Penalty Losing Appeal’ By Shad Saleem Faruqi

Based on the article, “Death Penalty Losing Appeal” written by Shad Saleem Faruqi, the author deals with the issue of whether death penalty should be imposed or abolished. He argues that death sentence should not be executed as a means to punish criminals especially pregnant women and juvenile below 18 years old as he believes everyone has inherent right to life. He contends that a better punishment should be implemented instead of death penalty as a punishment to the criminals as the Covenant states that there is no absolute ban on death sentences.

Most in the article, the author’s position is biased to disapproving and not supporting the capital punishment. The author claims that everyone has the inherent right to life and states that as God gives life, only He should take it away. He takes into account if the death penalty has been sentenced, the convict has to have the right to appeal to the higher courts and the right to apply for pardon.

The author then presents three claims to support his own point of view on the issue. His first claim is that capital punishment is mandatory and the court has no choice rather than execute the sentence if the crimes involve murder, drug trafficking, unlawful possession of firearms and attempt by a a life-convict to murder if hurt is caused. Criminals are being treated the same even with different case or situation. For example, a woman who has been raped that kills the culprit herself either he is not apprehended or acquitted may be convicted with mandatory death. However, the  judge should have the discretion to impose a lighter sanction of imprisonment rather than mandatory death but it’s not happening. This may be correct bu t they lack validity as there is no external support as research findings. Therefore they appear merely as the author’s opinion.

The second claims he presents is, as long as the death penalty is maintained, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eradicated. He includes a statistic, in the US, since 1973, there are 123 prisoners who have been released after evidence of their innocence of crimes has been revealed for which they were sentenced to death. Prosecutorial, forced confessions and unreliable witnesses are some of the factors of their sentenced. However, the author did not provides the viable source of the evidence above which it can be an unreliable source. The third claim that he made is there is no increasing number of crime in abolitionist countries. He mentions a research findings from the UN but does not present his view and leaves it to the readers stating that acceptance of his view is a matter of which research they accept.

Having said all these, the author also presents a counter-argument conceding that capital punishment can be considered by narrowing down the offences if total abolition is not seen desirable because there are a lot of terrorism nowadays. He accepts that death penalty be executed to only serious crimes. In doing so, this argument against capital punishment is complete as he stand for both sides.

The author generally appears to be inductive in his reasoning which lead from specific to a more general conclusion in paragraph V. He provides all specific support about the details of which mandatory sentence should be executed. He gives reference from law under section 39B of Dangerous Drugs Act that only drug trafficking carries the mandatory death. He states that usually people in the higher rank of the chain are not apprehended which is not a justice that we want.

From the article, the author’s purpose is to persuade readers to oppose and not support the execution of death penalty. He claims that death penalty is a form of legalized murder and it reflects primordial instincts of violence. He urges Malaysia to rethink its extensive provisions for death penalty and to limit the offences which capital  punishment should be sentenced. The author also appears to inform readers about the abolition of death penalty in many countries. According to the Amnesty International,

125 countries have already moved away from death penalty in law or practice while 71 other countries still retain and use the death penalty including Malaysia.

From this article, the intended group that the author want to tackle is specific public which is Malaysian because in the paragraph XI, he asked Malaysian to rethink its  provisions for death penalty. Since the author would like to persuade the readers and the word used aren’t highly scientific so it’s easy for the reader to digest it.

In summary, the author’s argument stating that death penalty can be imposed because of the age of terrorism which shows his favor that death penalty be executes to some serious crimes seems contradict to his other arguments. This weakening the author’s stand that capital punishment should not be used as a means to punish criminals.

( 815 words )

ELC 501: ENGLISH FOR CRITICAL ACADEMIC READING

ASSIGNMENT 1 CRITICAL ANALYSIS BASED ON ARTICLE ‘DEATH PENALTY LOSING APPEAL BY SHAD SALEEM FARUQI

PREPARED BY:

1.

FATIN NURATHIRA BINTI MOHAMAD TAWFIK (2015408714)

2.

AZROY EZETTY BINTI KHASRI (2015298678)

3.  NADZIRAH BINTI ZULKEFLI (2015250274)

GROUP:

EH 220 3B

LECTURER’S NAME:

MISS HAMIDAH ABD KADIR

DATE OF SUBMISSION:

23RD DECEMBER 2016