In 1994, a court in Singapore sentenced an American teenager, Michael Fay (born 30 May 1975),[1] to be lashed six times with a cane for violating the Vandalism Act.
Fay pled guilty, but he later claimed that he was advised that such a plea would preclude caning and that his confession was false, that he never vandalized any cars, and that the only crime he committed was stealing road signs.
[2][5] The Singapore police eventually arrested two teenagers who were driving a car similar to one that witnesses had described as being involved in the vandalism.
[6] Fay later claimed that he had been intimidated and threatened during the police interrogation,[2] and maintained that he had been advised such a plea would preclude caning and that his confession was false, that he never vandalized any cars, and that the only crime he committed was stealing signs.
For example, Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Royko reported that he had been sent a large number of letters, nearly all of which supported the punishment.
[15][16] A Los Angeles Times poll found that Americans were evenly divided (49% approved, 48% disapproved) as to the appropriateness of the punishment, but would have only been 36% in favor had the sentence been handed down inside the US.
On March 3, 1994, the day the sentence was passed, Chargé d'Affaires Ralph Boyce at the United States Embassy in Singapore had also said that the punishment was too severe for the offence.
In April during a local television program, Lee Kuan Yew, then Senior Minister, said that the US was neither safe nor peaceful because it did not dare to restrain or punish those who did wrong, adding, "If you like it this way, that is your problem.
[24] He gave several television interviews, including one with his American lawyer on CNN with Larry King on June 29, 1994, in which he admitted taking road signs but denied vandalizing cars.
[25] While he did not detail his experience, he said that he was "ill-treated" at times during questioning, but had shaken hands with the caning operative after his four strokes had been administered and the prison guards when he was released.
Several months after returning to the United States, Fay suffered burns to his hands and face after a butane incident.
[32] In June 2010, Fay's case was recalled in international news, after another foreigner in Singapore, Swiss national Oliver Fricker, was sentenced to five months in jail and three strokes of the cane for trespassing a rail depot to vandalise a metro train that is a part of the country's Mass Rapid Transit.