[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 5


INDIA:

HC commutes death sentence to life imprisonment


The Orissa High Court here today commuted the capital punishment awarded
to a murder accused, by a lower court, to life imprisonment.

Delivering the judgement, a division bench comprising Justice P K Tripathy
and Justice A K Samantaray said "we find that the death sentence is not
proportionate and according to the provision in section 354 of CRPC for
the offence under section 302 of IPC, imprisonment for life is the normal
sentence." One Krushna Naik of Sorada in Ganjam district was sentenced to
death by the Additional Sessions Judge, Bhanjanagar for killing Chakradhar
Mallick in October 2000.

Mallick and some of his associates had confronted Naik as the later had
raped a girl of their village. In a fit of rage, Naik hit Mallick on the
head by a wooden stick killing him on the spot.

The lower court had convicted the accused under section 327 (2-G) of IPC
(Rape) and sentenced him with life imprisonment in December 2003 and in
the same month the trial cout also convicted him to death sentence under
section 302 of IPC (murder).

(source: PTI)