ABOVE: Vithaya Pansringarm portrays Chavoret Jaruboon in 2014’s “The Last Executioner” Photo: De Warrenne Pictures
Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission of Thailand has proposed the government discontinue use of capital punishment.
In a Monday session of the junta’s cabinet, the organization proposed repealing the death penalty in the new constitution because it has failed to prevent crime and violates human rights.
As deterrence is an inadequate solution to crime, the commission suggested the penal system instead focus on reform and rehabilitation.
Last year a Bangkok Post editorial suggested a minority – 41 percent – want to keep the death penalty as-is. While only about 1-in-10 favored abolishing it outright, the majority were undecided.
There has not been an execution since 2009, when Bundit Jaroenwanit and Jirawat Poompreuk were killed by lethal injection eight years after they were arrested for drug trafficking.
It was the second sentence carried out using lethal injection, which replaced firing squads in 2003.
The cabinet meeting directed the Ministry of Justice to review the suggestion with organizations such as the Royal Thai Police and Office of the Attorney General and return with their findings in 30 days, Bangkok Biz News reported.
