The Developments in Criminal, Legislative and Judicial Policy on Adoption of Capital Punishment for Narcotic Drugs Crimes

M. Rahmdel

Abstract

Pursuant to the spread of drug addiction in Iran in the 1960's, and mounting pressure exerted from the Iranian public and the international organizations, the government was forced to adopt a more strict legislative criminal policy against drug trafficking. The adoption of such a policy went through different stages throughout its history. To express its strict stance against drug trafficking, the government initially introduced capital punishment code in the domain of narcotic drugs crimes, and then carried out the sentence in the 1970's and 1980's on a large scale. Nonetheless, beginning in early 1990's the government decided to reduce the cases of capital punishment in the code, in an effort to adjust its criminal policy. This new lenient policy has been affected by the judicial criminal policy. In other words, the resistance of judicial criminal policy against the legislative criminal policy has led the latter to lean toward more leniencies. Of the influential cases, we can refer to the jurisprudence, especially the prominent role of the Supreme Court, law enforcement forces, anti-drug staff, and finally public attitude toward capital punishment in drugs crimes. These developments have set forth a hopeful prospect regarding the adoption of a more reasonable procedure in relation to capital punishment for drugs crimes.

            The present paper examines the aforementioned developments comparatively and analytically, using the library method.

Key Concepts: Capital Punishment, Criminal Policy, Narcotic Drugs, Law, Jurisprudence.

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