Capital punishment in Menghe
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Menghe. It is available as a sentencing option for a variety of crimes, including murder, treason, and drug trafficking, depending on the severity of the offense. Most executions are still carried out by firing squad, with lethal injection becoming more common in the 2000s before declining again after 2013.
Use of the death penalty peaked during the "disciplined society" campaign of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when it was applied more liberally to cases of drug trafficking and corruption. Since then, the National Assembly has imposed greater restrictions on the sentencing process, and there are signs that the use of the death penalty has declined. Because the Menghean government does not publish figures on the annual number of executions, and treats this information as a state secret, there is some disagreement as to the strength of this trend.
History
The use of capital punishment in Menghe reaches back into antiquity, with unearthed bronze inscriptions dating from the 2nd century BCE recommending execution for a range of offenses. Menghean dynasties and the small warring states that accompanied them had a wide variety of execution measures, from death by a thousand cuts to dismemberment and decapitation. Especially heinous crimes could result in the execution of one's extended family, partly as collective punishment against a family line and partly to ensure that no relatives rose up to take revenge.
In 1308, the Sŏndŏk Emperor of the Ŭi dynasty issued a decree prohibiting all forms of capital punishment except beheading, which was to be carried out from behind the kneeling convict with a heavy sword. This move was a tacit nod to Chŏndo reformers, who believed that in order to be morally just, an execution must be "swift and merciful;" they regarded slow and agonizing executions, of the kind practiced beforehand, to be needlessly cruel. Nevertheless, death by a thousand cuts resurfaced under the Myŏn dynasty, where it was most infamously applied to Casaterran missionaries and merchants who violated the country's closed borders.
The State of Sinŭi restored the "swift and merciful" requirement in 1870, adding that a bullet to the head or heart also met this standard. The Federal Republic of Menghe instituted the firing squad as the preferred method of execution, though beheading resurfaced in special circumstances under the Greater Menghean Empire and was a preferred tool of terrorism for nationalist guerillas during the Menghean War of Liberation. Beheading was formally outlawed under the Democratic People's Republic of Menghe, which relied on either group firing squads shooting the convict's heart or individual executioners shooting them in the back of the head.
Crimes punishable by execution
Civilian law
As of January 2018, the following acts can be punished by execution, although there are no mandatory death sentences and sentencing is based on a judgment that includes the severity of the offense, the defendant's criminal record, and whether the defendant shows or fails to show any signs of remorse.
- Murder, especially premeditated murder, murder of multiple people, and "exceptionally heinous or cruel methods of murder;"
- Sexual abuse of a child or minor, or forcing a child to engage in prostitution or other sexual services;
- Kidnapping which results in the death, rape, or grievous injury of the victim;
- Plotting or taking part in an act of terrorism, including assassination of a Menghean politician or foreign politician on Menghean soil;
- Organizing or inciting a civil disturbance which results in the death of civilian, police, or military personnel, or extensive damage to private or public property;
- Producing, smuggling, or trafficking illicit drugs, if the amount exceeds 5 grams for Class I narcotics or 1 kilogram for Class II narcotics;
- Smuggling, purchasing without license, or manufacturing without license firearms or explosives, with the intent of using them in a criminal act or distributing them to criminal elements;
- Corruption, public or private, which results directly or indirectly in a loss of life, or which poses a grave risk to the lives of many;
- Involvement in an act of genocide or crimes against humanity, either as a planner or a direct perpetrator;
- Piracy, especially if it results in the injury or endangerment of passengers and crew; and
- Hijacking or attempted hijacking of a high-speed train or civilian aircraft, with or without intent to engage in an act of terrorism.
The strict penalty against drug trafficking, imposed during the "disciplined society" campaign, was amended in several reforms between 2006 and 2018 advising courts to account for outside factors when making their sentencing decision, and some unofficial outside studies have concluded that no individuals were sentenced to death for drug trafficking in 2015, 2016, and 2017, though as the Menghean government does not publish official execution statistics these figures are disputed. By law, all ports of entry into Menghe, including international train stations, must carry signs in English, Menghean, and the national language of the country of origin where relevant, warning that possession of narcotics is punishable by death; if certain controlled substances are legal in the country of origin, arrivals are given an opportunity to dispose of personal supplies in bins before passing through customs.
The use of the death penalty in cases of corruption is also somewhat unique to Menghe, though it is also practiced in Qusayn and Ummayah. During the 1990s, Menghean courts broadly interpreted the "grave risk to the lives of many" requirement, imposing death sentences on government officials who embezzled public funds in jurisdictions where citizens lived in extreme poverty. Since then, it has mainly been restricted to high-profile cases of regulatory negligence that resulted in a significant loss of life or widespread medical problems, such as the 2011 Yŏsu County chemical spill and the 2015 high-speed train derailment in Haenam Province.
Internationally, the most controversial law in the list is the item permitting the death penalty for the ringleaders of civil disturbances. Prominent dissidents and human rights organizations contend that the Menghean regime has applied this law as part of a deliberate effort to restrict freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and that most unofficial outside figures vastly underestimate the scale of its use. For its part, the Ministry of Justice maintains that the death penalty has not been applied in relation to a case of civil disturbance since 2009, a claim which dissidents have also disputed.
Military law
The Penal Code of the Menghean Armed Forces lists a number of additional offenses which are punishable by death. Unlike civilian offenses, these offenses are subject to trial before a military tribunal, and involve fewer rights and procedures for the defendant.
- Treason, intent to commit treason, or incitement to treason;
- Collaboration with enemy forces;
- Espionage on behalf of a foreign entity or domestic terrorist movement, including the disclosure of state secrets to the public;
- Malfeasance, refusal to carry out orders, or fabrication of orders;
- Mutiny or incitement to mutiny;
- Desertion;
- Rape, theft, deliberate killing of civilians, and other acts classified as war crimes, with or without the orders of a superior officer;
- Providing arms, food, or other supplies to hostile forces;
- Sabotage of national infrastructure, including road and rail transportation, electrical infrastructure, and communication infrastructure, except when ordered to do so by a superior officer;
- Sabotage, destruction, or abandonment of military equipment, except when ordered to do so by a superior officer; and
- Theft of arms, ammunition, vehicles, and other controlled military items.
In peacetime, these regulations are only applied to active military personnel or reservists on training exercises, but during an armed conflict or other national crisis the military can impose a state of emergency and apply several of these laws, such as those against sabotage and collaboration, to civilians. If a civilian crime in peacetime is deemed to pose a sufficient risk to national security, the accused may be turned over to a military tribunal instead of a civilian court.
All death sentences applied by Menghean military tribunals are carried out by firing squad, if possible at a secluded location or within an existing detention and execution facility. In wartime or times of emergency, this requirement can be relaxed.
Sentencing procedure
Menghe has a civil law legal system, and while judges are permitted to make sentencing decisions based on the individual details of the case, they must follow the general guidelines laid down by the country's penal code.
If a local court decides to apply the death penalty, the case is then passed on to one of Menghe's eight regional High Courts, which review the case in greater detail in order to account for both the wording of the law and the facts surrounding the event. High courts have the power to replace a death sentence with a life sentence, or vice versa, and may reverse a guilty ruling altogether if new evidence comes to light or if the High Court finds "serious irregularities" in the lower court's decision. From 2009 onward, regional High Courts must also pass on a death sentence to the Supreme Court for approval, a measure intended to reduce the number of sentences handed out and impose additional caution.
At the conclusion of its ruling, the Supreme Court issues an execution date, which is known only by the convict and their immediate family. The accused has an opportunity to appeal the decision, but by law the appeal process cannot take longer than five years, and if the appeal court is unable to make a decision by that time a new, final execution date is scheduled. The accused can also request a pardon from the Supreme Council, but as of February 2018 there has been no recorded case in which the Supreme Council pardoned a convict on death row (the number of requests they received, if any, is unknown).
Execution procedure
After being sentenced, convicts are taken to a special detention facility for inmates awaiting execution. Conditions at these facilities are usually harsher than those at other Menghean prisons, and inmates receive fewer rights. All inmates are held in solitary confinement with limitations on reading and exercise, and are permitted fewer visits from the public.
By law, all civilian executions in Menghe must be performed in a special soundproofed basement within the detention facility; public execution is strictly prohibited, except during cases of national emergency. Executions cannot be carried out on national holidays, nor on or near days of particular religious significance in Menghe. Each firing squad is composed of six individuals, four of whom carry rifles with wax bullets to imitate the recoil of live ammunition. The convict is firmly handcuffed to a pillar in a kneeling position, and wears a jumpsuit with a tightened band around the chest marking the heart as a target. Convicts are blindfolded before they enter the execution room, but the officer commanding the squad issues issues instructions within earshot, including a clearly enunciated "sam - i - il" (three - two - one) prior to firing. After the execution is carried out, a medical examiner is brought in to certify that the sentenced individual is clinically dead. In accordance with the prevailing Menghean custom, executed criminals are cremated in a separate room in the detention complex, and their ashes are delivered to their nearest relatives.
Owing to the secretive nature of the Menghean execution system, little is known about the origin or identity of the executioners. Some anonymous sources suggest that every execution detention facility has a permanent staff of personnel who perform this role, or that it is allocated by a random drawing of employees' names; others claim that all executions are carried out by dedicated execution squads within the Internal Security Forces or the Internal Intelligence Agency, who travel to prisons at scheduled times and whose identities are kept secret to avoid retaliation.
Other anonymous accounts attest to the presence of "covert execution units" within the Internal Intelligence Agency, individual officers who carry out the sentence with a pistol round delivered to the back of the head. This method is supposedly reserved for political detainees whose cases were not made public, or, in some accounts, for those who did not face a conventional trial. The Menghean government firmly denies the continued existence of this practice, which was widespread under the Democratic People's Republic of Menghe.
Some reformers have advocated that death by firing squad be replaced by lethal injection, which they contend is a more painless and humane way of carrying out the sentence. Ministry of Justice publications state that lethal injections became more common in the late 2000s, and accounted for nearly half of all executions in 2011; it is believed that these are carried out in the same room as executions by firing squad, with the convict strapped to a mobile table. In 2013, however, an unknown error in the composition of the chemical cocktail caused one convict, Wi U-sŏng, to remain conscious for fifteen minutes after the sedative was administered, a botched ordeal which prison officials leaked to the private press. Following public outrage over the case, the Ministry of Justice announced that it would transition back to a primary reliance on firing squads, on the basis that they are more likely to produce the "swift and merciful" death prioritized in traditional Menghean morality.
Disciplined society campaign
Use of capital punishment in the Socialist Republic of Menghe surged during the "disciplined society" campaign (Menghean: 규율 사회 / 規律社會, gyuyul sahoe), which Choe Sŭng-min launched in 1993. Organized as a response to heightened crime, smuggling, drug use, and corruption in the wake of Menghe's economic opening, this campaign consisted of a wide-ranging effort to promote military virtues among the citizenry, particularly hard work, self-sacrifice, and humble living conditions.
As part of this campaign, the Ministry of Justice extended the death penalty to "morally destructive crimes," a loosely defined category which included rape, drug trafficking, and corruption. It also allowed local courts to decide death-penalty cases without taking them to the regional High Court, which led to widespread reports of hasty sentences without appeal. Estimates for the number of executions steadily increased from 1994 onward, peaking in 1997 or 1999 before declining again after the Menghe Socialist Party transitioned to a more moderate tone. Some reports attest to the use of summary execution by local and national police forces, usually after arrest and detention but before a fair trial. While tacitly acknowledging the excesses of the overall campaign, the Ministry of Justice denies that summary executions became anything beyond an isolated occurrence.
Reform
Despite its controversy abroad, the death penalty enjoys widespread support in Menghe. In a nationally representative survey conducted in 2015, 82.4% of respondents said that they approved of Menghe using the death penalty, and only 6.7% believe the country should abolish the death penalty immediately. The Menghe Socialist Party and one of its coalition allies, the New Menghe Communist Party, both support the use of capital punishment in their official platforms; the Menghe Social-Democratic Party is open to discussing a gradual movement toward its abolition.
Nevertheless, the Ministry of Justice and the National Assembly have independently undertaken a number of reforms intended to reduce the use of the death sentence. Prominent examples include the requirement for Supreme Court approval, added in 2009; a procedure to extend the five-year appeal period "in extreme cases" in 2012; and, most recently, a law which will abolish the use of the death penalty in cases of drug trafficking for cases which begin after January 1st, 2018. The Ministry of Justice also claims that lower-level courts have also reduced the percentage of murder cases resulting in a death sentence.
Statistics
Because the Ministry of Justice does not publish any official figures on executions, and court and other proceedings related to death sentences are not generally open to the public, clear statistics on the number of death sentences carried out per year are difficult to estimate. Some independent organizations have attempted to produce estimates by contacting the families of convicts, or by searching for anonymous sources within detention centers, and the Publicity Department of the Ministry of Justice maintains that most estimates by human rights organizations deliberately overestimate the number of executions.
Nevertheless, both official qualitative statements by the Ministry of Justice and outside estimates by most human rights NGOs suggest that the number of executions carried out each year has declined since its peak in the late 1990s, and there are signs of a steeper decline from 2015 onward.
According to Human Rights International, an NGO based in Septentrion, Menghe carried out 843 executions in 2017, compared with 987 in 2015. Estimates usually hovered around 1,000 to 1,500 between 2006 and 2015, with some signs of a gradual decline. Using 2015 census data, 843 executions suggests a per capita rate of 0.16 per 100,000 people.