Capital Punisment-Texas & Singapore

Capital Punishment - Texas and Singapore

In the country of Singapore the death penalty is strictly enforced it is even mandatory for the judge to give the death sentence for certain crimes such as murder and drug trafficking depending on the amount of drugs found on the person at the time of arrest. If the person is found with more than half an ounce of heroin or more than 17 ounces of marijuana the instantly given a death sentence. It is also imposed for various firearms offences. The death penalty is also given for murder, any felony that results with murder, kidnapping and mutiny.

In Singapore only women who are pregnant and those who under 18 at the time of their offence are excused from the death penalty. It is unknown how long Singapore has had the death penalty enforced; however Singapore is said to have the highest rate of death penalty executions beating out china and Saudi Arabia. More than 36% of the people on Singaporean death role are foreign nationals from various countries such as the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, Thailand and Nigeria.

Capital trials take place in public in front of one high court judge after the trial the defendant has one chance to appeal at the Court of Appeal of Singapore. After this the person may appeal to the Singaporean president for clemency. The president is advised by the cabinet it is very rare that clemency is granted.

Though the Singaporean government has experimented with various methods of the one used today is the long drop hanging method. The hangings take place at dawn on Friday. The criminals are notified of their hanging at least 4 days in advance. The families and embassies of foreign nationals are given one/two week notices. Inmates on death role are kept in a (30ft^2) cell which is equipped with a pallet and a toilet, they are given buckets which they use to wash themselves. 4 days before their execution the criminals are allowed to either watch TV or listen to the radio, their visitation time is increased to per week without physical contact. During their last 4 days the criminals are fed their favorite meals. The cost of life in prison and the cost of death role in Singapore is unknown at the moment.

Some cases that resulted in death penalty sentence in Singapore are the cases of Johannes Van Damme for drug trafficking, Flor ContemplaciÐ""n for murder, and Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi for drug Trafficking.

The state of Texas has the highest death penalty rate in the United States. The death penalty has been enforced in Texas since 1819 and since that time 1153 people have been sentenced. The executions were carried out through many different methods such as hanging electrocution, firing squad and lethal injection. In the past crimes such as murder, rape, treason, piracy and cattle rustling were subject to the death penalty. The last person to be hanged in the state of Texas was that of convicted murderer Nathan Lee in august 31 1923. In 1923 the law required that executions should be done on the electric chair.361 people by electrocuted in the state of Texas by 1964. The first person to be executed by lethal injection in the state of Texas was African American, Charles Brooks, Jr. in 1982.

Currently the only crimes eligible for Capital punishment in the state of Texas are "capital murder" (e.g. Killing a public safety officer or while committing a felony, and the murder of anyone under six years of age), second conviction for the rape of a child under fourteen and as of recently the aggravated rape of a minor is also now considered to be a capital offense.

In Texas the death sentence can be given to anyone 17 and older.

The current method of execution in Texas is the lethal injection method. Texas has accounted for more than 1/3 of the recent executions in the united states (1976 to the present) with 405 executions as of October 19 2007. This year alone 26 people have been executed in the state of Texas. Today the Texas has 372 inmates currently on death role. 68% of the current death role population in Texas are made up of blacks and Hispanics.

Taxpayers lose about an average of $3.2 million dollars to a death penalty case in Texas. The estimated cost of one prisoner for life in prison is $750,00. In Texas, Tarrant

county sent three inmates