Legislator defends RP executions

Legislator defends RP executions

MANILA (DPA): A Philippine legislator assured critics of the death penalty yesterday that the country's capital punishment law contained safety provisions against reckless sentencing.

The remarks by Senator Ernesto Herrera, author of the law re- instating capital punishment in 1994, came as opposition mounted against the first execution scheduled for next year.

Herrera said that among such safety provisions were explicit statements that death was the most severe of a range of penalties for heinous crimes.

The first person scheduled for execution next year is Leo Echegaray, a carpenter who was convicted of repeatedly raping his step-daughter.

At least 414 convicts have been sentenced to die by lethal injection since 1994. So far, the Supreme Court has confirmed only six death sentences.