Amendments to the Penal Code in Vietnam
The Stringency of Vietnam’s Penal Code According to Amnesty International, only 22 countries around the world were known to have carried out capital punishment in 2013. Amongst the 12 highest in the world, Vietnam’s death row includes at least 200 people each year, even though Vietnam amended its Penal Code in 2009 by reducing the number of crimes qualifying for the death penalty from 29 to 22. Capital punishment was executed through firing squads until 2011 when the Law on Execution of Criminal Judgments established lethal injection as a replacement. However, the administration of lethal injection was delayed due to the European Union’s refusal to sell drugs to Vietnam. Instead, Vietnam developed its own lethal injection drugs in 2013 that “make a person lose consciousness, relax the muscles, and stop the heart.” The use of such drugs has been debated because improper administration could result in a painful death, which some see as unethical.
Vietnamese criminal laws remain stringent. Many crimes which would result in imprisonment and expensive bail sums in the United States qualify for capital punishment in Vietnam. Under the current penal code, crimes that could result in capital punishment include fraud, embezzlement, smuggling, counterfeiting, and bribery. According to Amnesty International, drug crimes are also punishable by death in Vietnam. In March 2014, a 57-year-old director of a development bank was sentenced to death after he and 12 others approved counterfeit loans worth $89 million. Two of his coworkers among the 12 who inked the contracts were also sent to the death row shortly after.
Issues Raised by the Death Penalty
Capital punishment in Vietnam raises several ethical issues, especially that of wrongful convictions. Opponents of capital punishment have argued against its “deterrence effect,” stating that capital punishment has been unable to lower crime rates. A report published in 2012 by the U.S.-based National Research Council of the National Academies investigate the correlation between crime rates and capital punishment for three decades and indicated that the death penalty did not correlate with crime deterrence. Other opponents have also questioned Vietnam’s ability to carry out such executions given concerns over locally produced lethal injection drugs.
The highest profile case of a wrongful conviction was that of Nguyen Thanh Chan, a 55-year-old initially sentenced to life in prison in March 2004 for the murder of a local woman. The Supreme People’s Court dismissed his appeal and upheld the sentence, but, the real murderer was later revealed in October 2013 due to persistent investigation led by Chan’s wife. Pham Tuan Chiem, the now retired Supreme People’s Court judge who presided over Chan’s case, was placed under house arrest while police investigated him for gross negligence.
Debate Regarding Amendments to the Penal Code
The National Assembly has been debating redrafting the penal code in order to address the concerns raised by both local and global opponents of Vietnam’s capital punishment system. Vice Chairman Huynh Ngoc Son argued to keep the death penalty for the most serious crimes, such as breaching peace and waging aggressive wars. Despite Son’s disapproval, Chairwoman of the National Assembly Committee for Social Affairs Truong Thi Mai argued to abolish death penalty for criminals above age 70 in order to align Vietnamese law with global standards. Other goals for the new draft were to align amendments to the Penal code with the 2013 constitution. Relevant agencies such as the drug trafficking and law assessment agencies were told to continue working on the draft before submission to the NA. The Committee also suggested specific amendments such as restricting the use of the death penalty to heads of drug gangs. Appeals against the death penalty would also be considered more favourably for those who hand over their ill-gotten property or money. While Vietnam has taken some concrete steps, whether the reforms of Vietnam’s penal system will reduce crime rates remains irresolute.