The Human Rights Commission's recent revelation that some prisoners have spent more than two decades on death row has sparked another round of calls for capital punishment to be abolished.

Bar Council chairperson Yeo Yang Poh said death penalty was a reflection of the notion that 'an eye for an eye' will provide the best form of justice, a concept that civilised society no longer accepts.

"Keeping a person on death row waiting indefinitely or for a long period of time adds to death penalty's cruelty," he said in a statement.

Yeo said that possibility of errors exists no matter how prudently the legal system operates, which results in people being wrongly convicted and losing their life.

"Is putting men and women to death, an acceptable feature in our system of justice, because society wishes to punish the guilty one by employing this most extreme and irredeemable process?" he asked.

According to him, there is also long delay in the clemency process because the Pardons Board convenes infrequently.

On Wednesday, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department M Kayveas told the Dewan Rakyat that the government would maintain the death penalty for serious crimes to act as a deterrent.

Death not a deterrent

The Bar Council had, in March this year, passed a resolution calling for the death penalty to be abolished and for a moratorium on all executions.

Meanwhile, human rights watchdog Suaram said that the global trend was to abolish all forms of capital punishment.

Thus far, 125 countries have abolished the death penalty, the latest being Philippines last Saturday.

"It's time for Malaysia to follow their footsteps. Everyone has the rights to live," said Suaram executive director Yap Swee Seng.

Yap argues that capital punishment was an ineffective deterrent to offenders as crime rate was still on the rise.