"Michael Peter Fay (born May 30, 1975) is an American who briefly shot to worldwide notoriety when he was sentenced to caning in Singapore as an 18-year-old in 1994 for theft and vandalism. Caning is a routine court sentence in Singapore but most Americans were unfamiliar with it, and Fay's case was believed to be the first caning involving an American citizen.[1]
The number of cane strokes in his sentence was reduced from six to four after U.S. officials requested leniency." (Wikipedia.com)
The rights in Singapore differ from the rights in America so his rights were not violated under the law. However they should have taken into consideration that the officers in charge of his case used force to get the answer that they wanted out of him, and should look further into the matter rather than just flogging him for a crime he might not have committed. It seems to be that the Singapore justice system is lacking not only in fair punishments but in fair ways to conduct investigations. In America flogging is a violation of peoples rights, and I believe that this is a good thing. What if and officer decided to take it to far and beat an accused to death? This is cruel punishment and our system seems to be working ok so why would we end up changing it to something that most Americans would be against anyway. We have more legal ways to find out if a person has committed a crime or not unlike in Singapore and they may just use this punishment as a deterrent so that others will not commit the same crime in the future. Since their law system isn’t as functioning as ours this may be the only way to keep certain crimes from happening again, but some crimes like Michael Fays deserve a less severe punishment. Only those who have committed a serious crime should be given such a drastic punishment. Instead other crimes should be given probation or time incarcerated instead of being beaten with a cane.
No comments:
Post a Comment