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B.A.LLB BangaloreInstitute of LegalStudies

Capital Punishment v/s Human Rights

Source: http://www.legalserviceindia.comAuthor: gouthamPublished on: May 09, 2015

Capital Punishment V.Human Rights

Does the society need capital punishment to punish its convictsor are we taking away the lives of convicts who have every rightto live on this earth.

I think life is sacred whether it is abortion or death penalty- Tim Kaine

Death penalty or capital punishment is a legal process wherein a person is put to death by astate in accordance to a crime committed. The word capital comes from the Latin wordcapitalis (of the head). Crimes that result in death penalty are known as capital offences orcapital crimes.

Capital punishment has been used over the years by almost every society in order to punish theguilty for some particular crimes such as punishment for premeditated murder, espionage,treason, or as part of military justice. In some countries sexual crimes such as rape, adulteryand sodomy carry the death penalty, so does religious crimes such as apostasy (the formalrenunciation of the State religion). In many retentionist countries (countries that use death

penalty) drug trafficking is also a capital offense. In China, human trafficking and serious casesof corruption are also punished by the death penalty.

Only 58 nations (including India) are actively practicing capital punishment, whereas 95countries have abolished the use of capital punishment.

Back in 1947 India retained the 1861 penal code which provides death penalty for murder. Ithas been estimated that 1422 executions have taken place in 16 Indian states between 1953 and1963 and it is hard to measure the rate of death sentence execution between 1980 and 1990. Itis estimated that 2 to 3 persons were hung to death every year.

In the Judgment of Bachan Singh v/s State of Punjab(1980)2SCJ475, 1980, the SupremeCourt ruled that death penalty should only be used in the rarest of rare cases, but does notgive a definition as to what rarest of rare means.

There has been a huge debate around the world over the use of death penalty whether it shouldexist or not. Every man has a right to live. Article 21 of the Indian constitution provides to itscitizens protection of life and personal liberty no person shall be deprived of his life or

personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. This exception to life hascreated a dilemma across the world.

Is the judiciary valuing innocent lives which have perished to that of a person committing aheinous crime such as murder? Do criminals who commit a heinous crime such as murder losethe right to live on this earth? Are innocent convicts being executed? Does death penalty takeaway the right for future appeal that would have been filed by the convict? What is the remedy

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to wrong executions? Does death penalty to a convict provide proper remedy to the family that

has lost its member and gone through the horror and pain of losing its loved one? These arejust the few questions that are being debated across the world in every society over the legalityor legitimacy of death penalty whether it must exist or be eradicated.

Crime rates have not decreased in spite of death penalty or capital punishment in India or anyother country with such practices. The death rate in India per 1000 people was reported at8.04% in 2010 where half of it were criminal homicide, the inclusion of death penalty hasnt

provided any Midas touch to bring down the death rates.

Many writers and thinkers are to a conclusion that death penalty is partial to individualsbecause Ajmal Kasab a terrorist from Pakistan who was one of the accused in the Mumbaiattack, 2008 (also known as 26/11), who was captured alive by the police and after due legal

process and production of proper evidence he was found guilty for the terrorist attack and wascharged for possession of dangerous weapons, was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court ofIndia on 29th August 2012 but has not yet been executed. Instead he had filed a mercy petitionto the President of India but was substantively hanged after much delay on November 21,2012,this delay has kept the convicts in death row for several years. There are 26 mercy petitions

pending before the President of India where some are dated back to 1992. The common peopleare executed faster. This brings about a sense of partiality and forms a loophole in our own

judicial system. The death penalty is implemented or executed rarely. Out of 300 murderersonly 1 gets a death penalty. Studies have shown that death penalty has not been a deterrent

because according statics death penalty and murder rates have a positive co-relation whichmeans where death penalty lies murder rates are high. According to a survey report many

police chiefs and other law enforcement officers death penalty is not a deterrent to people whocommit violent crimes.

People who commit murders do not think of the consequences or the punishment that theymight go through. The reason behind this is that the act done is mostly spontaneous or anemotional outburst and is at the spur of the moment, it is very unlikely that they are mentallystable.

According to recent studies, life imprisonment costs 10 times lesser than when a person isexecuted after a long process or the bureaucratic process that has to be undergone for a personto be executed.

There is a speculation that death penalty is the worst way of violating human rights, becauseright to live is the most important right. A few believe that judicial hanging is one of the formsof legal murder.. The mental torture that a person goes through while being executed is far

beyond imagination. It is inhuman and a monster within the society some believe.

I think capital punishment works great. Every killer you kill never kills again Bill Mayer

But then there would be total anarchy if death penalty would be abolished because everyonefears death, who would want to end their life? So death penalty may act as a deterrent forfuture crimes that are going to be committed. Abolitionists may contend that death penaltyshould be abolished because human life is precious and cannot be valued for anything, but thenit is the article of faith it treats the human not like animal, instead of death penalty honorhumans with dignity. A person who has committed a crime is aware of his mistakes and he isalone responsible for his act and consequences. Executions are done keeping in mind the safety

of the public.

Executing a convict may not bring back a person who is already dead , but executing theconvict, future acts may be prevented. In order to ban death penalty in India, the public should

be convinced that justice can be provided without executing the convict by brutality (there are

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attempts being made for painless executions, but death is death and it is inevitable). However,abolishing death penalty may lead to rise in crime rates, laws will be broken more often andvarious kinds of illegal vigilante style justice may rise.

There can be no end to this debate because until heinous crime exits, there will be capitalpunishments.

The author can be reached at: goutham@legalserviceindia.com