Why Death Penalty Is Always Given Before Sunrise And After Fajr In Pakistan?
published by advocateonline.pk
I am an advocate listed in Karachi Bar Association, Pakistan. One day a friend of mine asked me a question to me, why the death sentence execution is always done before sunrise and after fajr prayer in Pakistan? I don’t have the answer to that question, so I decided to search for the right and correct answer to that question. I asked my colleagues and seniors for the answer, but no one has an accurate answer. Everybody has his own answer, but my eagerness was not contented, so I keep on searching for this answer.
I visited many websites for that, and there was a long list of answers to that question. Like…..
* When a DOE (date of execution) is handed down it specifies a certain date. A new day begins at 12:00am or midnight. Executions are usually carried out in the first few hours of a new day. It is also a time when the general prison population is settled and sleeping, the staff then can focus on the execution.
* Every state has its own laws on how and what time they carry out the death penalty. These decisions made by lawmakers are influenced by factors such as crowd and media control.
* This is a tradition, not a hard rule. The idea is that it allows the prisoner the opportunity to get a night’s sleep and be fully rested and therefore most relaxed; does not have to wait all day for the end.
And many more, but the question is still there as it is, why is this method used in Pakistan which is an Islamic Republic country? And have his own way of punishments written in the Quran and Shariah?
Then an interesting answer which takes away my attention is…..
Exodus 20: 2 “If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed; 3 but if it happens after sunrise, he is guilty of bloodshed. So they don’t feel guilty of administering the death penalty of a thief.
The Book of Exodus or, simply, Exodus, is the second book of the Hebrew Bible (the sacred writings of Judaism)
The book tells how the children of Israel leave slavery in Egypt through the strength of Yahweh, the God who has chosen Israel as his people. Led by their prophet Moses they journey through the wilderness to Sinai. It is basically the bible of Israel. And on this presumption basis, the death execution is always done before sunrise as they assume that way The State or the executor will not be guilty of bloodshed of the punished one.
From Where method of hanged to death came?
5th Century. Hanging was first introduced as a method of execution in Anglo-Saxon Britain, William Fitz Osbert became the first to hang at Tyburn (for sedition). In Britain, hanging was the principal form of execution from Anglo-Saxon times until the death penalty was abolished in 1964. There were hundreds of executions a year in the 16th and 17th centuries with the greatest number being carried out at Tyburn, near what is now Marble Arch, at the end of Oxford Street in London. Before this method the death sentence execution had been done by drowning, burial alive, hurling from cliffs, beheading, boiling alive, burning at the stake and shooting, etc.
Why it is always done before sunrise?
In 1889, Minnesota passed “Smith’s Law,” specifying the condemned was to be hanged “before sunrise,” to prevent the public from being exposed to the depressing impact of the death penalty. Some states followed suit, but others continued to allow daytime public executions into the 1930s.
Kaplan writes:
“This statutory effort to protect the public’s psyche from the negative effects of executions included the following restrictions:
1. All hangings would take place before sunrise while most people slept.
2. The execution would take place within the walls of the jail or within an enclosure higher than the gallows.
3. The only persons who could attend the execution were the sheriff and his “assistants,” the clergy or a priest, a physician, three persons designated by the condemned prisoner, and six others designated by the sheriff.
The press was forbidden from attending executions and could not report publicly anything more detailed than the fact that on a particular date the prisoner was executed.”
Islamic Point Of view:
The sentences that are from the Shariah for the death penalty are either ‘beheading’ (for murder) or ‘stoning to death (for adultery) and these sentences are recommended to be carried out after Jumuah prayers so that a portion of the believers may be able to witness it. In Islam, hudood punishments are given for Ibrat (EXEMPLARY PUNISHMENT) and make sure that most of the people are there to witness the punishment.
After getting freedom from British rule in August 1947, we have no constitution to run our newly made country, so it is decided that the Government of India Act 1935 was used as a constitution with some changes. Automatically all administrating laws which promulgate are British in nature; even today we have an Islamic country with a British law system.