Quora Answer: Should Singapore Abolish the Death Penalty?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Should Singapore abolish the death penalty?”

The death penalty is an effective deterrent against serious crimes.  The laws are clear, and explicit, on the consequences of capital offences.  The judicial process of arriving at a verdict are sound.  There is no reason why it should be abolished.  It is a part of our legal philosophy, which emphasises prevention, as opposed to a punitive judicial system.  The idea is to make the penalties so severe that all, but the most recalcitrant, are deterred.  This is a social engineering where society values safety and the rights of the collective over the rights of a few criminals.  We also have to consider that if we hang enough of the right people, it cleans up the gene pool, and benefits society as a whole.  We cannot allow an underclass of hardcore criminals to develop.

The death penalty is also economically sound.  Some would advocate life imprisonment.  It costs us to feed murderers, rapists, drug traffickers and kidnappers for the rest of their lives.  It saves us money by hanging them as soon as the appeals process is over.  Those savings can be put towards the rehabilitation of people that can be rehabilitated.