[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

August 5


INDIA:

Girl's killer to hang in India


India is to carry out its 1st hanging in 13 years after the president,
Abdul Kalam, rejected a plea for clemency from a man convicted of raping
and murdering a 14-year-old schoolgirl in 1990.

Mr Kalam took the decision late on Tuesday after consulting legal experts
over the fate of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who was due to be hanged in June
before his petition to the president, officials said.

Chatterjee was sentenced to death after he was convicted for the rape and
murder of Hetal Parekh in Calcutta.

His relatives, human rights groups and lawyers opposed to capital
punishment have protested against hanging, sparking a debate over the
death penalty in India.

But newspaper opinion polls have shown that a majority of residents in
Calcutta, outraged by the crime, support the death penalty.

The appeal to the president is the final step for prisoners condemned to
death.

The West Bengal state government, where Chatterjee is in jail, will set a
new date for the execution.

Indian courts rarely award the death penalty and only about 40 people have
been executed in the past 30 years.

Officials said there were more than a dozen convicts on death row across
the country.

(source: The Guardian)