SPECIAL REPORT | Justice for victims of the crimes and their families is one of the strong arguments for the death penalty proponents to retain capital punishment.

However, is an eye for an eye an adequate punishment or is it just an easier way to pursue justice, compared to rectifying the defects in our current justice system?

The previous articles in this series reflected the frontline voices of criminal system practitioners. Some remained in support of capital punishment because they believed the system provided sufficient safeguards to avoid a miscarriage of justice. However, others called the system into question.

Either way, how should we justify justice for the victims of crime and their families once the death penalty is removed? Can we provide sufficient support systems for them? What are the support systems needed? These are important questions that need to be dealt with, including by those who advocate the abolition of the death sentence.

Amnesty International-Malaysia (AI-M) has been actively involved in the death penalty abolition movement for a few decades. In 2010, along with other activists, it campaigned for a Malaysian drug trafficker placed on Singapore's death row, Yong Vui Keong, to be spared the gallows. After a four-year struggle, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment...