"There is an unprecedented rise in crimes in Sri Lanka. Underworld activities, vice, drug peddling and murders are on the upsurge. Most of these crimes take place in Colombo and its environs. We read in the newspapers and see in television, shocking, sickening, blood curdling, horrendous murders committed, very often some of these are multiple murders. Lawlessness appear to be the norm of the day. Law and order is plunged into the darkest depth. We are aghast to hear about barbaric gruesome murders.

We read about murder trials in courts, and the accused sentenced to death. There are a large number of condemned prisoners’ in the Condemned Cells at Welikada and Bogambara prisons. Some of these condemned prisoners are awaiting the adjudication of their appeals and some are after dismissal of their appeals, awaiting the execution of the death sentence. With every Amnesty some of them, awaiting death sentences get sentence. With every Amnesty some of them, awaiting death sentences get their sentences commuted to life sentences. With the passage of time these life sentences are commuted to 20 years, imprisonment, and with the remission of sentence for good behaviour, Amnesty Remission, Open Prison Camp remission and on Licence Board they have the prospect of getting released within 10 — 12 years to the free world.

Death penalty which was suspended was, revived having been passed through Parliament. Two executioners were recruited. The gallows which were in a dilapidated condition were repaired and brought up to date. No executions were done, and it was held in abeyance. With the assassination of the High Court Judge it was announced that the executions will commence.

My reminiscences about the hilarious incidents, pathetic scenes with the death penalty are many and varied. I would like to unfold them as they come to my mind.

There is a departmental standing order that the executioners should report to the Jailor at 2.30 p.m. the day before the execution. The Jailor will see that they do not leave the Prison till the execution is over on the following day. The fact that the executioners will have to remain the night within the Prison for the following day’s execution reminds me of a curious story that circulated in the past. After the preliminaries were done for the following day’s execution at about 6 p.m. a telegram was received from the governor’s office that the execution has been postponed indefinitely because of a last minute appeal by the accused, to the Privy Council in England. The executioners were allowed to go home.

One of the executioners went home after a heavy booze late in the night. As he approached the house he overheard a conversation inside the house. What be heard was much to his annoyance. He forced open the kitchen door and entered the house. He found that his wife was entertaining a youngster of the neighbourhood. The executioner rushed at the youngster. He pushed the executioner down and fled. To the fleeing youngster the executioner shouted that he might get a chance to hang him one day. The executioner gave a beating to his wife, and the neighbours intervened and save the wife.

This incident generated much gossip in the village the following day much to the annoyance and disgust of the youngster’s fiancee. The youngster approached the infuriated fiancee. She asked him to go to the "Alugosuwa’s" executioner’s wife. This provoked the youngster so much he stabbed the girl several times and killed her. With the passage of time the youngster got condemned to death by hanging, and with the confirmation of the death sentence the youngster now a condemned prisoner made an application to the Superintendent and asked him not to allow that particular executioner to hang him. His application was declined. To accede to his request, it is not possible as two are required for an execution. One man has to release the lever and the other man to put the noose round the neck and hold it tight.

The condemned man is weighed, and according to the weight the jailor and the medical officer decide, on the drop the man will fall based on the British Table of Drops as used in English Prisons. The Jailor writes the drop on a board at the gallows. The executioner measures the rope and gives the drop. The executioner has really taken his revenge by shortening the drop where the suffering is greater without the proper severance of the cervical spinal cord.

The next hilarious incident that comes to my mind is that on one day for an execution the senior executioner had a bit too much to drink and he could not stand straight. This was observed by Mr. Paddy Silva the Superintendent of Welikada Prison, who was officiating the execution. The Superintendent questioned him. The executioner immediately retorted that his job cannot be performed under sober conditions.

He was very vociferous. Apart from his being drunk on duty his act, gesture and conduct was tantamount to gross insubordination. At the last moment as no replacement could be found for him he was as allowed to perform his job. He did his job correctly by pin pointing. The man bringing him and placing him on the gallows putting the noose round the neck, so as to get the knot of the noose parallel to the cervical spinal cord. He held the knot of the noose with both his hands but inadvertently kept his legs on the trap door due to his drunkenness and his argument with the Superintendent. As his assistant released the lever, he went down with the condemned man much to the astonishment of the onlookers. As he was holding on to the rope he went down about six feet and jumped down the balance sustaining injuries. The Superintendent who was contemplating on interdicting him immediately for disciplinary proceedings, sent him off with a warning.

There is a colossal delusion that if the execution is not carried according to the time and date mentioned in the death warrant or according to the letter of the President, it will be an illegal execution.

There is a much narrated incident about an execution at the beginning of the last century. When they hanged a man the rope snapped and the man fell into the pit. The executioners, cajoled the man, and brought him up. The rope snapped because the previous day when they hanged the sand bag, the rope had been partially eaten by rats.. After getting a fresh rope they hanged the man half an hour later. When I told this incident to some youngsters, who were very eager to hear about executions. They were very vociferous in stating that the execution is illegal. The law with regard to any omission or error is as follows:-

My next amusing incident is about an impatient Prison Medical Officer. I wanted to get a clear view as to what happens to the doomed man when he falls through the trap door. It is dangerous to stand at the edge of the trap door and look down. So I went outside the Condemned Cell Blocks, to the plank-shed side. The man falls into a wooden enclosure. Two sides are covered with a wiremesh. The man fell not vertically but slanting to a sides, and he came to the vertical position, when the rope got tightened round the neck. The man shivered his chest point expanded so much so that the shirt he was wearing came to a bursting point at the seams. Anyone, watching the man might think, that he is having great pains. But it is not so, When he came to the vertical position his cervical spinal cord severed.

Thereafter it was a painless death. When the man stopped shivering and the chest deflated to normal, one executioner came down and the other on top untied the rope and the body was placed on a table. According to the law the Prison Medical Officer shall ascertain the fact of death and sign a certificate and deliver it to the Superintendent of the Prison. I was feeling the pulses of the man, when the medical officer came. He was my first aid lecturer in the Training School and well known, to me. I told him the pulses are working. He was impatient. Probably he was in a hurry. He pulled out a pen knife, and cut the left jugular vein. Blood spurted right on to the doctor’s face. One prisoner attendant give him a basin of water. He washed his face and the hands. Another prisoner gave him soap and a towel. His cloak too was covered with blood. He threw off the cloak and went away fuming, much to the amusement of all round, about. His certificate was — "Death is due to the severence of the cervical spinal cord by judicial hanging", is He never mentioned about the cutting of the jugular vein. He did this before giving the certificate, so as to be doubly sure that the man is dead. I have not seen any legal requirement that he should cut the jugular vein.

The other incident that comes to my mind is about a serious security situation in Matara High Court, when a man was sentenced to death. The announcement of the verdict of the jury and the pronouncement of the sentence of death by the judge is not sans pathetic sights and hilarious, scenes. The Court expects, solemnity under pain of imprisonment for contempt of court, but there are occasional sobbing and outburst of loud weeping by the kith and kin of the man who is to be hanged by the neck till he is dead, within the four walls of a Prison. But these little disturbances are ignored, and no action is taken for contempt of Court.

But there was a serious incident at High Court , Matara in the early part of seventies, when the accused in the Hakmana bomb case was sentenced to death. The prosecuting counsel in this case was Chulpathmendara Dahanayake. As the sentence of death was passed there was loud weeping and wailing. There were about 50, to 60 people, who threatened the witnesses who they said gave false evidence. The Police protected the witnesses and took them to their homes in Police vehicles. There was sheer pandemonium in the court house and the judge withdrew to the chambers without signing the death warrant. He finally went to the bungalow. The District Court, Additional District Court and the Magistrate’s Court, which were in close proximity also adjourned, because of the commotion in the High Court. The condemned prisoner a high security prisoner was surrounded by the relatives and friends. He was eating and drinking, the food and drinks supplied by the relatives and friends, who were mostly drunk. This is something prohibited by law and highly dangerous to the security, of the prisoner. All lawyers and the court staff were having a look at the condemned man. The crowd was enormous. The jailor and the two guards were not armed and they were at the mercy of the drunken and howling crowd. They had only restrained the prisoner with handcuffs. On hearing about this situation, as Chief Jailor I rushed to the High Court with arms. I baton charged the crowd surrounding the condemned prisoner, I got a police cordon round him up to the Army vehicle and brought him to the Prison and located him in a high security cell and placed two guards over him. I rushed back to High Court and collected the important documents, namely 1. The Death Warrant 2. Identification Papers form Fiscal 94 (in duplicate) and 3. Finger Print Slip. This is an important document. When a person is committed for trial on a capital charge, the Magistrate committing the man to stand trial in High-Court, gets him finger printed as an extra precaution against a last minute dispute or doubt as to the identity of the person to be executed and the finger print slip will be attached to the committal papers.

The next incident was a pathetic scene when a famous thug of Wattala was executed. There was a crowd of people at the main gate. They were restive and there was emotion on every face. They approached me and asked me If they could see the dead body of the executed man, I told them that they could see the dead body, they could bring a hearse and a coffin the body could be dressed in any way they want, and buried at the Borella cemetery under Prison supervision. No wreaths, tom toms and the grave must be made flat.

Now to view the dead body it was arranged to take these people in batches of ten. The first batch went solemnly and silently. As they saw the corpse they began to wail and beat their breasts, and roll on the ground raising dust. They were taken back and as they approached the gate with a loud wail, the other batch waiting to go in also burst into a loud wail and so on until the whole crowd had viewed the body. It was a very emotional and pathetic scene.

Before I conclude this article I would like to give a very brief historical background about the death penalty in Sri Lanka.

Death Penalty in Sri Lanka dates back to the times of the Sinhalese kings. Death penalty took varied forms such as breaking upon the wheels, trampling by elephants and decapitation. These were the punishments given for the capital offences. Decapitation appears to have been the accepted mode of punishment. A well known instance of the infliction of this penalty is the beheading of the child hero Madduma Bandara on the orders of Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe When the British took over the maritime provinces of Sri Lanka by proclamation of 1799 it was laid down that punishment after conviction in capital cases, by breaking upon the wheels, trampling by elephants decapitation and other barbarous modes of punishments be wholly abolished. It was decreed that capital punishment should be inflicted by hanging the offender by the neck till he is dead. So thereafter hanging by the neck continued to be the punishment for capital offences.