Legal Powers to Set Shorter Deadlines for Death Row Convicts to Appeal against Death Sentence to Prevent Abuse of Court Processes and Unwarranted Delays in Finality of Capital Punishments

Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for Law whether the Courts can be given the legal powers to set shorter deadlines for death row convicts who wish to appeal against their death sentence to prevent the abuse of Court processes and unwarranted delays in the finality of capital punishments.

Mr K Shanmugam: There have been several unsuccessful last minute legal challenges by prisoners awaiting capital punishment, which were found by the Courts to be completely unmeritorious and amounting to abuses of process.

We are considering legislative changes to deal with such abuses.