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Over the last decade however, president Chandrika Kumaratunga made several attempts to reintroduce the death penalty. In March 1999, after spurts of violence near the end of her first term in office, she stated that the government would be reintroducing the death penalty. However, she was forced to back down in the face of overwhelming public protest. The issue hung in the balance, with all death sentences from then on being neither commuted to life nor carried out. Discussions took place with the result that the motion which commuted all death sentences to life in prison was revoked in January 2001. There are currently more than 100 prisoners on death row in Sri Lanka.
On November 19, 2004, High Court judge Sarath Ambepitiya was gunned down as he arrived home from work. He had a reputation as a judge who handed out tough sentences. This event immediately prompted Kumaratunga to effectively reinstate capital punishment. The death penalty, if put in to action would be carried out by hanging.
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Read more about this topic: Capital Punishment In Sri Lanka
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