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Making the sentence fit the crime

Seventeen years' Rigorous Imprisonment and a Rs. 10,000 fine. This is the price four law-breakers have been called on to pay for breaking into the home of an elderly couple and causing damage to their property.

As our front page newsreport revealed yesterday, the elders had died in this incident, but the accused were not found guilty of murder by the jury which heard their case in the High Court of Colombo. In fact, all 19 accused were acquitted of murder, but four were found guilty of forcible entry into the elders' residence and of causing damage to their property while injuring another inmate of the house. It is the latter offenders who have been sentenced to 17 years' RI by the High Court judge concerned.

The sentence could be considered a noteworthy judicial decision on account of the magnitude of the punishment which has been handed down to the offenders. While all the facts of the case are not disclosed in our newsreport nor the totality of the considerations given, on which the judgement was based, a closer look at the nature of the offences referred to, reveals a certain aptness and propriety in the sentence which was handed down.

The wanton, pre-meditated, unleashing of lawlessness by a mob in a country which is bristling with communal tensions, cannot be winked at or taken lightly by those administering justice, nor by civil society. Besides, the criminal acts were directed against the helpless and the defenceless. Accordingly, the sentence needed to be stiff and sufficiently effective in preventing a recurrence of such acts. It is hoped, therefore, that the sentence would act as a brake against the eruption of organised, gangland violence of this kind.

At the current moment when the pros and cons of implementing the death penalty are being debated, this judicial decision shouldn't go unnoticed.

Although, ideally, no human or any man-made institution could arrogate to itself the power of taking the gift of life, the deepening anxiety of the Government and of the general public over the escalating crime wave needs to be taken into consideration. Today, the principal issue in this context is: how could crime be curbed?

While there is, clearly, a valid moral argument against the taking of life, in whatever circumstances, those campaigning against the re-implementation of the death penalty need to give ear to the growing anxiety of the public over the rising crime wave.

Certainly, the rigorous and expeditious implementation of justice could act as a deterrent against the perpetration of crime. Given this context, the 17 years' RI sentence for forcible entry into the private residences of the defenceless, could strike one as being apt and effective.

The administration of justice system is seen in some quarters as part of the problem of crime on account of its inefficiencies.

The expeditious and effective dispensation of justice, could, even if the death penalty is not imposed, to some measure, curb the crime wave.

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