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10 February 1995
Dear Sirs,
re: Death Penalty
The
matter of the abolition or reinstatement of the death penalty is a very
emotionally charged issue. It is very emotionally presented
in the media, with
the media sympathy generally going to the perpetrator of the crime.
The
death penalty issue in South Africa, is also often compared to the situation in
other countries where the death penalty has been
abolished recently.
Much
of the emotional discussion on the death penalty however obscures certain
pertinent facts which need to be taken into account.
- How
many murders actually take place in South Africa annually?
- How
many potential murders take place annually? I define a
potential
murder as a situation where the perpetrator has the intention to kill.
If
a man suffers from a stab wound to his chest, and he lives in Diepkloof, Soweto,
he has a chance of being rushed to Baragwanath
Hospital very rapidly, where he
may receive urgent medical attention, which may include a thoracotomy to repair
a stab wound in his
heart. He survives. If the identical injury had to take
place in Orange Farm, or in some far flung community in northern Zululand
or
Transkei, the man may die.
What is the difference? Clearly the
availability of nearby sophisticated medical care. Does this make the one
assault any more heinous
than the other? No!
I would therefore argue
that a potential murder takes place, where an injury is inflicted, which in the
absence of medical care would
lead to death or maiming of the
victim.
Medical care then does not only include emergency open heart
surgery, but also cases where the victimls life is saved by his receiving
an
underwater chest drain, or a drip or blood transfusion to prevent death
occurring from shock.
A potential murder also takes place where no
violence actually occurs, but where the perpetrator is ready to kill should
anything
go wrong with his crime. A man who holds up a store with
an
A.K. 47 rifle, does so being prepared to brutally murder, very rapidly should
anyone resist him. Any armed robbery actually falls
in the same
category.,
3. If one adds together the number of actual murders that take
place, plus the potential murders, one gets a more accurate picture.
This total
figure can then be divided by the population of the country to obtain the
National Potential Murder Index.
4. If we compare the issue of death
penalty in South Africa, with the situation in other countries that have already
abolished the
death penalty, we need to compare the Potential Murder Index in
South Africa, with that of these others countries, eg United States,
Great
Britain, Brazil etc.
Only then can any meaningful comparison be
made.
In addition, we need to take cognisance of a number of other
relevant statistics.
4. How many rapes take place annually? Any raped
woman can potentially die from Aids!
5. How many of the cases of violent
crime, murders, attempted murders, armed robbery and rape actually result in a
conviction
- court?
We need separate percentages for each category.
- If
all 100% of perpetrated crimes were actually solved, and a
- year
imprisonment sentence handed out for each, how many
prisoners in
jail does this represent?
- Do
we have prison space for all of these prisoners to serve
out their
sentences?
- Of
those criminals actually sentenced by a court, what
percentage of
their sentences do they actually serve before being released on parole due to
overcrowding of our prisons?
9. How many of those actually sentenced are
first, second, third or more times offenders under the general category of
violent crime?
If a man has been sentenced for rape once, armed robbery
once, and attempted murder once, he has 3 convictions for
potential
murder.
Where do we obtain all this relevant
information?
Court records only include the cases actually sentenced. Police
records only include the cases actually investigated.
It is common
knowledge, that in the past, the police have adopted different standards in
terms of investigating violent crime in different
population groups. Actual
murders, and attempted murders where a firearm was used are routinely
investigated.
Unfortunately stabbings and rapes where the victim does not
know the assailant's identity, are so
common, that particularly in the black
community, the police have not even opened files on many of
these cases. I
believe that the statistics of violent crime, also need to be obtained from the
Casualty Departments of all Hospitals
in the country, before we have a realistic
picture of how big our violent crime (and therefore potential murder) problem
really is.
10. What differences have there been in the number of murders,
attempted murders, cases of violent crime and rape in South Africa
since the
introduction of the moratorium on the death penalty?
11. What differences
have there been in these statistics in other countries eg. the U.S.A. since they
abolished the death penalty?
12. In the U.S.A. there has been an upsurge
in violent crime in recent years. This increase dates from the time that
American courts
ruled that prayer to God, may not be made in American schools as
such prayer violates the rights of the Atheists. We need to know
what the
percentage difference has been in the American crime rate before and after this
ruling. This is very relevant to South
Africa, as there is a lobby in this
country that wish to see prayer and Bible Education removed from our schools,
and should that
lobby be successful, the same percentage increase in violent
crime that occurred in the U.S.A. could potentially occur here in South
Africa.
It is only once all the above information has been analyzed,
that the issue of the death penalty can be accurately considered in it's
relevant context - the context of the National Potential Murder Rate!
I
trust that the Constitutional Court will obtain all these facts and make them
public, as you evaluate the issue of the death penalty.
Yours
faithfully,
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