Life and Law: a study on the socio-economic profile of death row inmates in the country.

Abstract

This study investigated upon the social and economic profile of former death row inmates that are still under the custody/care of our correctional institutions. Mainly, it prioritized upon taking a closer look of how these inmates lived before they were convicted of their committed crimes – the interview included questions about their lives like what work they used to be engaged in, their educational attainment and such. Also, it transcended the relationship between the inmates and the complainants and had an investigation as to its analogy with the theory of Radical Marxist theory of Criminality, which has relation to the conflict theory of criminality as is included in the framework of this study. Aside from the background of the inmates, this study also introduced to us different ways of punishing capital offenders around the globe and also in the Philippines. And lastly, this study aimed to let the inmates have their say in this issue, even if it will just be in writing. Data gathering were done through one-on-one interviews with the use of an interview guide that was used both for the male and the female inmates. The sampling method used was a random type, giving every inmate every inmate equal chances of being picked as an interviewee. A total of seventeen (17) former male death row inmates from the National Prisons or the New Bilibid Prisons, and a total of seven (7) former female death row inmates from the Correctional Institution for Women were picked by respected Officers from both institutions.

From the interviews that were conducted, the researcher had inferred that majority of the inmates did not have proper education; second, majority of the inmates are Roman Catholic; third, majority of them are agricultural workers; fourth, many of them were not given enough legal support and did not go through a due process of law; fifth, most of them consider themselves belonging to the middle class; sixth, majority of male inmates committed crimes that are against the use of illegal drugs; seventh, majority of the inmates were handled by private lawyers, and last, all of them do not believe that Death Penalty is deterrent or the solution to the problem of criminality that our country is facing.