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Osman Mozin

The harshest and perhaps oldest punishment determined by humans is execution, which is often imposed for serious crimes such as murder; with the argument that since the individual has caused the death of another human being, in order to respond to the necessity of retaliation, they must be punished accordingly and their life taken and executed. With this argument, the punishment of retribution will lead to equality and peace of mind for the family of the victim and serve as a lesson for society to know the consequences of murder.

There have been many writings about the harms and damaging consequences of the death penalty, to the point that now in many countries this punishment is not imposed and instead life imprisonment is given. Every day, the number of countries abolishing the death penalty is increasing. Aside from the extreme violence of the death penalty, its most damaging consequence is the inability to reverse the decision if it is found to be wrong. This is because its execution results in the loss of a person’s life, and if it is later discovered that the person was wrongly convicted and executed, there is no way to bring them back to life.

In Islamic law, for serious crimes, the punishment of execution has been determined, which has led to an increase in executions and they are considered the minimum punishment. In addition, Islamic governments have also used their authority to determine and announce the punishment of execution for certain crimes.

The prescribed punishments are not changeable and cannot be suspended, and their implementation is necessary and essential in Islamic society. However, the government can easily change or suspend the prescribed punishments through the legislative bodies and legal institutions.

In Iran, in addition to the prescribed retribution for intentional murder and in some other cases, execution is also implemented as a punishment. Furthermore, in some offenses where the punishment is determined by the government, we witness the imposition of the death penalty, as evidenced by published statistics showing that the majority of executions in Iran are related to drug crimes. This is because, according to the law on combating drug trafficking, if someone commits acts such as production, transportation, distribution, and sale of drugs – even in very small amounts – the court handling the case is required to issue a death sentence, which has been determined to be applicable for 30 grams of glass.

Many legal systems are trying to find alternative punishments instead of execution, but by studying the process of lawmaking in Iran, we can conclude that, contrary to the trend and situation in other countries, efforts are being made to increase the use of the death penalty. This is because lawmakers see the elimination of criminals as the best solution.

Today, many countries have come to the conclusion that the elimination of criminals is not a logical and principled solution for reforming criminals and reducing crime rates. Instead of elimination, efforts are made to rehabilitate and, if possible, reintegrate them into society. This is the goal of alternative punishments, which are proposed and implemented instead of execution. These include long-term imprisonment, life imprisonment, or work in special facilities for serious crimes.

In the criminal procedure law and the penal code that have been approved in recent years, courts have been given some discretion in determining alternative punishments; however, this discretion is only for replacing these punishments instead of imprisonment and in line with reducing the number of prisoners. However, this practice can also be extended to other punishments, including the death penalty, which the legislator has not paid attention to.

With the suggestion and drafting of appropriate laws, which have given governments the power to determine punishments and are beyond the limits, it is easy to eliminate the death penalty in many crimes and to determine alternative punishments for it, which requires the will of legislators while considering the experiences and actions taken in other countries.