On Monday, over 300 people gathered in a Singapore park for a candlelight vigil to protest the impending hanging of a Malaysian convicted of drug smuggling who, according to activists, should be spared because he has an intellectual disability. Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, has been sentenced to death for smuggling 43 grams of heroin into Singapore for more than a decade. Last month, he lost his final appeal against the execution. Dharmalingam and his mother have filed another motion with the Supreme Court, which will be heard on Tuesday. The motion’s specifics remained a mystery.

As US News has reported, Nagaenthran’s cousin, Thenmoli Sunniah said “I don’t want to give up hope until the day.” Thenmoli is referring to April 27th, the day of the planned execution. The lawyers working on Nagaenthran’s case as well as local activists have revealed that his IQ was 69, a level that is recognized for corresponding with an intellectual disability. A 26-year-old participant in the vigil, Jess Koh reported on the death sentence, “it’s unnecessary and outdated and doesn’t make us more safe, targets people in poverty and the minority.”

Nagaenthran’s case has sparked international interest, with a group of UN experts and British billionaire Richard Branson joining Malaysia’s prime minister and human rights advocates in calling for his death sentence to be revoked.

Both the United Nations and the European Union have chastised Singapore’s government for their use of the death sentence. Singapore’s use of the mandatory death sentence and high execution rates have alarmed the European Union. The Singapore government has maintained that the application of the death penalty is not a matter of human rights. It has vehemently defended its position that capital punishment is an effective deterrent to crime, particularly drug trafficking.

According to many studies, the death sentence is disproportionately applied to society’s poorest, least educated, and most vulnerable citizens. It takes the lives of individuals who might have been rehabilitated otherwise. Crime is frequently linked to other socio-economic issues such as poverty, drug misuse, unemployment, and family disintegration, issues that executions can not alleviate.

I believe that the death penalty should be abolished. Capital punishment violates the right to life which happens to be the most basic and fundamental of all human rights. Furthermore, it violates the right to not be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment. The death penalty undermines human dignity which is inherent to every human being.