Life imprisonment in Singapore
From 1 January 2013 onwards, the amendments to the death penalty laws in Singapore allow judges to impose life imprisonment as the lowest punishment for capital drug trafficking and murder with no intention to kill, under certain conditions for eligibility.
[1] Since 20 August 1997, after the landmark appeal of Abdul Nasir Amer Hamsah, the definition of life imprisonment is changed to mean a term of incarceration for the rest of a convict's natural lifespan, although it carries a possibility of release on parole after a minimum period of 20 years behind bars based on the prisoner's conduct.
This definition was recognised by the Court of Appeal in the judgement of Neo Man Lee, a schizophrenic killer who received a life term in 1989 for the 1984 case of culpable homicide of Judy Quek.
[3] In June 1993, a question over the definition of life imprisonment was raised during the trial of Tan Swee Hoon, who was one of the two perpetrators responsible for the 1985 murder of an Indonesian fish merchant Nurdin Nguan Song.
In the case of wanted gunman Chin Sheong Hon, who was arrested in 2013 for using a revolver to rob and hurt a woman back in November 1981, the trial judge Pang Khang Chau highlighted that life imprisonment, as the maximum penalty for Chin's crime, should not be a term that lasts the remainder of his natural life but a term of twenty years' jail under the old laws before Abdul Nasir's case, since his crime was committed in 1981 while the previous laws were still in effect back then.
[15][16][17] On 1 January 2013, the government of Singapore approved the changes to the death penalty laws, in which they introduced life imprisonment as the minimum punishment for murder offences with no intention to kill and capital drug trafficking, under certain conditions.
This discretion is similarly applied to those convicted of drug trafficking, provided that they only act as couriers, suffering from impaired mental responsibility (e.g. depression), and/or substantively assisting the authorities in disrupting drug-related activities.
Minister for Law K. Shanmugam stated that these changes were a right step taken in view of the extremely low crime rate and increasing rate of public safety in Singapore, and such changes were made to allow judges to have more discretion in deciding between death and life in capital cases where their individual circumstances did not sufficiently call for the death penalty, which allowed more emphasis on mercy during sentencing while maintaining the need for retribution and deterrence.
[25] Extracted from Sia Ah Kew and Others v Public Prosecutor [1974]: In our opinion the maximum sentence prescribed by the legislature would be appropriate where the manner of the kidnapping or the acts or conduct of the kidnappers are such as to outrage the feelings of the community.
[29] In November 1996, 28-year-old cleaning supervisor Kelvin Lim Hock Hin was arrested by the police for allegations of sexual assault of five young boys between ages nine and 13, of which two of the victims were his godsons.
[35] The three judges also made a benchmark ruling, which decreed that in whichever future cases, if a chronic paedophile was unable to or see no initiative to refrain himself from his sexual advances towards children, such offenders should be sentenced to the maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
In this context it is equally important to note that under the old position, his release after 20 years would have been guaranteed, but a prisoner sentenced for life in respect of a crime committed after Abdul Nasir has no such peace of mind.
[49] In a 1998 landmark case relating to the successful partial defence of sudden and grave provocation against murder, a Malaysian named Kwan Cin Cheng had his sentence increased from ten years to life imprisonment for culpable homicide by the Court of Appeal, due to the judges feeling that the manner of Kwan killing his girlfriend being too deplorable and violent that a ten-year term was manifestly inadequate despite their disagreement to the prosecution's arguments for the murder charge and death penalty.
The last case was in April 1998 when then President Ong Teng Cheong granted clemency to 19-year-old convicted murderer Mathavakannan Kalimuthu and commuted his sentence to life imprisonment.
[60] After the landmark appeal of Abdul Nasir Amer Hamsah on 20 August 1997, although life imprisonment is meant to last for the remainder of a convict's natural lifespan, the sentence still carries a possibility of release on parole after a minimum period of 20 years behind bars.
[27] In another kidnapping case that took place in 2003's Christmas Day, Tan Ping Koon and Chua Ser Lien (who committed suicide at Changi Prison in July 2020)[69] were both jailed for life and caned three strokes for targeting and abducting a seven-year-old girl into their car.
[72][73][26] Abdul Nasir Amer Hamsah, in another case, received 12 strokes of the cane and life imprisonment for kidnapping and holding two police officers hostage with another man in 1996.
Iskandar was sentenced to a mandatory term of life imprisonment and 18 strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of unlawful possession of a firearm for causing hurt to a public servant.
[78] Another case was Nyu Kok Meng, a Malaysian who, together with serial killer Sek Kim Wah, robbed a businessman and his family while armed with a knife and a stolen military rifle.
[81] There are several conditions and exceptions for courts in Singapore to consider in cases where a person faces a potential life sentence under the law for whichever scheduled offence charged.
While the defence of diminished responsibility could enable the reduction of a murder charge to culpable homicide, it was also a condition where the judges can refer to as a relevant factor of consideration on whether life imprisonment, as the maximum punishment, should be imposed on the offender.
One of the cases was Guen Garlejo Aguilar, a Filipino maid who killed her friend Jane Parangan La Puebla and disposed of two suitcases containing the victim's dismembered body parts at Orchard Road and MacRitchie Reservoir respectively.
Justice Rajah quoted about the conduct of Aguilar under influence of her depression, "By choosing to plant the deceased's head and torso in two very public places, her behaviour strikes one as nothing short of incoherent and incomprehensible,...
Lim was initially charged with murder but pled guilty to culpable homicide due to dysthymia, a life-long depressive disorder, that severely impaired his mental faculties at the time of the killing.
[85] Pang Siew Fum, the 60-year-old accomplice of drug courier Cheong Chun Yin (who smuggled 2,726g of heroin from Myanmar to Singapore), was also re-sentenced to life imprisonment in 2015 as a result of depression.
[88] In September 2022, Commonwealth double killer Gabriel Lien Goh was acquitted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (punishable by life) for killing his mother and grandmother in October 2019, as he was found to be suffering from acute hallucinogen intoxication at the time of the killings and hence was of substantial unsound mind when he committed the murders of his mother and grandmother, since his drug consumption caused him to experience illusions, hallucinations and paranoid delusions at the time of the offences.
[46] The first underaged offender to be sentenced to life imprisonment for a capital offence was Zin Mar Nwe, a Myanmar maid who was charged with killing an elderly Indian woman at Choa Chu Kang in June 2018.
Zin Mar Nwe, who used a knife to stab the 70-year-old victim 26 times (and it led to the woman's death), was 17 years old when she committed the offence, and after the defendant was found guilty of murder in May 2023, the trial judge Andre Maniam noted that Zin was a minor at the time of the offence, and the Criminal Procedure Code also prohibited the imposition of capital punishment for offenders who were below 18 when committing murder, and that a life sentence should be the only punishment required for such cases.
In the case of 69-year-old Seet Cher Hng, who was convicted of murder for killing his wife Low Hwee Geok at ITE College Central in 2018, the High Court sentenced him to a life term after the prosecution decided to not pursue the death penalty.
[93] Similarly, for 67-year-old Toh Sia Guan, a homeless man who fatally stabbed 52-year-old coffee shop helper Goh Eng Thiam during a fight at Geylang in 2016, he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2020, despite his advanced age and poor health.
