Mandatory Sentencing - Mandatory Death Sentence

Mandatory Death Sentence

• Both Singapore and Malaysia have mandatory death penalty for certain offences, most notably murder and possession of a certain amount of controlled drugs (See Capital punishment in Singapore).
• In the past Taiwan has had a large number of offenses that carried a mandatory death penalty, but these laws have been relaxed to a large extent recently.
• In India, the only crime punishable by a mandatory death sentence is murder by a convict serving a life sentence. The mandatory death penalty provided in Section 31A of India Law is in the nature of minimum sentence in respect of repeat offenders of specified activities and for offences involving huge quantities of specified categories of narcotic drugs.
• In Japan, the only crime punishable by a mandatory death sentence is instigation to a foreign aggression.
• In the United States, mandatory death sentences are unconstitutional since Woodson v. North Carolina.
• In the former British Empire, crimes punishable by a mandatory death sentence included murder, treason, sedition and espionage.