The Death Penalty

This is one of the articles I wrote for a college assignment... makes some sense though... enjoy reading...

We are all well aware of the existence of the death penalty in the whole world as well as our country. Generally, what most people understand about the death penalty in Malaysia is that it is given to those who commit crimes that are labeled as capital crimes. These include crimes such as murder, drug trafficking and involvement into terrorism. The death penalty is still being actively practiced in our country until today. As far as we might know, a convict who commits a capital crime will be sentenced under the death penalty.

However, many people do not know what the people around the convict go through because of the death sentence. Therefore, this article aims to provide an insight about the impact that is faced by friends and the family of a death penalty convict. This story will evolve around the family of a death row inmate, Sultan, a friend of mine who was charged for drug trafficking in October 2007. After the case got postponed twice, Sultan has been charged to be executed in March 2009.

To the eyes of the world, it might be just another case of a drug trafficker who has been sentenced to death due to the crime that he committed. After the case, the judge, the lawyers, the jury and the witnesses will most probably move on with their daily lives. However, when we see things from the eyes of the convict’s family and friends, things are totally different. How is it possible for the parents to calmly accept the fact that their son is going to be executed?

In this case, the family and friends are also indirectly being punished together with Sultan for the crime he committed. Firstly, the family has to accept the fact that he is sentenced to death and move on in life. If it is hard for me who only knew the convict for few years, it is unimaginable what the parents and siblings have to go through. Since October 2007, many traumatizing things have happened. The whole family went through a state of depression. Sultan’s father, who was always a jovial and stress-free man went through an emotional breakdown after Sultan got arrested. Sultan was always his favourite son. who never had any serious medical record suffered from a heart attack in January 2008. In March, he passed away after getting another heart attack.

Sultan’s family had no choice but to go through more pressure. Before they could handle one issue, they had to bear with the death of the father. As they were moving on slowly, another factor that made things harder in life for them was unfortunately the society. People labeled the family as “the drug dealer’s family”. Even immediate neighbors started avoiding themselves from them.These people are not the only ones who are going through this life. Many families of convicts out there are going through the same thing. It is sad that the society doesn’t understand that it is unfair to marginalize a group of people for what a single person did.