KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — Mandatory death sentences are ineffective deterrents to crime, a representative of the Malaysian Bar argued today ahead of a Sarawakian’s capital punishment in Singapore on Friday.

Commenting on the case of Kho Jabing who will be hanged on Friday, the Bar Council’s Human Rights Committee chairman Andrew Khoo said death sentences would put society on the same level as convicted killers.

“Justice cannot be served by mandatory sentencing. Secondly, you don’t respond to someone who killed by also killing that person,” Khoo told reporters today after submitting a clemency appeal for Jabing, to Singapore president Dr Tony Tan via the Singapore High Commission here.

Khoo was representing the Malaysian Bar as well as the Advocates Association of Sarawak and the Sabah Law Association, who signed the appeal.

In the appeal, the legal bodies pleaded with Tan to review Jabing’s sentence, pointing out that judges were divided over the death penalty in his case.

“The fact that learned judges of Singapore have expressed doubts that Kho Jabing exhibited sufficient mens rea or intention to commit the crime of murder, should, in and of itself, give rise to concerns whether Kho Jabing should be made to pay the ultimate price for his crime and be sentenced to hang,” the joint appeal letter read.

Jabing was convicted of killing a Chinese construction worker in 2008 and sentenced to death in the island state.

He was previously scheduled to be executed on November 6 last year but won a temporary reprieve pending a court appeal.

Singapore authorities have informed the family that the execution date has been fixed for Friday morning.