Death penalty repealed
News that matter in Papua New Guinea
Death penalty repealed
PORT MORESBY: Papua New Guinea (PNG) has repealed the death penalty
with Prime Minister James Marape saying the adjustment of Section 614 of the
Criminal Code Act is proper and associating the offences with longer terms to
be served”.
The penalties for offences that used to carry the death
penalty have now been changed to life imprisonment and life imprisonment with
parole.
The offences are treason, piracy, attempted piracy personal
violence, murder related to sorcery, aggravated rape and robbery with violence.
The news break was published by The National:
Death penalty
repealed
January 21, 2022The
NationalMain Stories
PARLIAMENT has
repealed the death penalty with Prime Minister James Marape saying the
“adjustment of the Section 614 of the Criminal Code Act was proper and was
associating the offences with longer terms to be served.”
The penalties for offences that used to carry the death penalty have now been
changed to life imprisonment and life imprisonment with parole. The offences
are treason, punishment for piracy and attempted piracy with personal violence,
wilful murder, wilful murder of a person on account of sorcery, aggravated rape
and robbery with violence.
Justice Minister Bryan Kramer, when presenting the amendment, told Parliament
that one of the main reasons for the country’s inability to implement the death
penalty was the lack of necessary administrative mechanisms and infrastructure.
“This was largely attributed to the difficulty presented by a single method of
implementation and administration of the death penalty in the past which was to
be done by hanging,” Kramer said.
“It’s in view of this, that the Government amended Section 614 of the Criminal
Code Act which was intended to give greater flexibility and capability to
enable the State to implement the death penalty.
“It provided a range of methods of execution of the death penalty for the
Government to choose from depending on the Government’s preparedness and
availability of administrative mechanisms and infrastructure suitable to that
particular method of execution.”
Death penalty and offences and punishment under the amendment:
- SECTION 37 treason – life
imprisonment no parole;
- SECTION 81 punishment for
piracy – life imprisonment, parole after 30 years;
- SECTION 82 attempted piracy
with personal violence – life imprisonment, parole after 30 years;
- SECTION 229 wilful murder –
life imprisonment, no parole;
- SECTION 299A wilful murder
of a person on account of sorcery – life imprisonment, parole after 30
years;
- SECTION 347C aggravated rape
– life imprisonment no parole; and,
- SECTION 386 robbery with violence – life imprisonment, parole after 30 years.
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