Waiting for the final nail in the death penalty’s coffin

AS a punishment, the death penalty continues to capture the public interest in a morbid and unique way. The Asean region has proven resistant to a growing worldwide movement away from the death penalty, with 142 countries having abolished it in law or practice. The only countries in the region to have abolished capital punishment are Cambodia in 1989 and the Philippines in 2007.

Previously, Thailand was also considered as having abolished the death penalty in practice but that changed when Thai authorities executed a 26-year-old man, convicted of murder, by lethal injection in June 2018, the country’s first execution since 2009.