[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 26



INDIA:

It's a crime


The visit paid recently by Priyanka Vadra to Nalini, convicted of the
murder of Rajiv Gandhi, naturally got front-page coverage. This humane
gesture by Priyanka was in keeping with the sentiment of compassion that
made Sonia Gandhi appeal for the commutation of Nalini's death sentence.

Priyanka has explained that it was a purely personal visit and it was her
way of coming to peace with the violence and loss she has experienced. The
episode brings into focus, once again, the issue of the death penalty.

So far 133 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in
practice and only 25 countries carried out executions in 2006, recording
1,591 executions compared with 2,105 in 2005. The rationale for abolition
of the death penalty was well expressed by President Eduardo Frei of
Chile: "I cannot believe that to defend life and punish the person that
kills, the state should in its turn kill. The death penalty is as inhuman
as the crime which motivates it".

Apart from the human rights angle, there is pragmatic and practical wisdom
that questions the retention of the death penalty. People are usually
talked into silence by the pro-capital punishment lobby that it is only in
the "rarest of rare cases" as decided by the Supreme Court that death
penalty is given, suggesting as if since the law propounded this
restriction, the number of executions have been considerably reduced.

Unfortunately facts belie this claim because, ironically, after the rarest
of rare doctrine was introduced in 1980, the Supreme Court confirmed death
penalty in 40 % of cases in the period 1980-90 while it was 37.7 % between
1970 and 1980. For the high courts it rose from 59 % in 1970-80 to 65 per
cent during 1980-90.

The vociferous opposition to the abolition of death penalty springs from
the myth that it can lead to an increase in crime. Facts show otherwise.
Between 1945 and 1950, the state of Travancore, which had no death
penalty, recorded 962 murders whereas during 1950-55, when the death
sentence was reimposed, there were 967 murders.

In Canada, after the abolition of death penalty in 1976, the homicide rate
has declined. In 2000, there were 542 homicides in Canada - 16 less than
in 1998 and 159 less than in 1975 (a year prior to the abolition of
capital punishment). A survey conducted by the United Nations in 1988
concluded that research has failed to provide any evidence that executions
have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment.

The grievous danger of irreversibility and innocents being executed is no
panic reaction considering that 500 people have been executed in the US
since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Over the
same period, 75 condemned inmates have been released after evidence showed
that they had been wrongfully convicted.

That equates to roughly one exoneration for every seven executions. It
cannot be disputed that the outcome of any trial depends to a fairly large
extent on the quality of legal advice that the accused receives. This
loads the scales in favour of the rich who find it easier to avoid the
death penalty than the poor. The arbitrariness, sometimes approaching
freakishness, of the sentencing mechanism in India persuades one to argue
that retaining the death penalty is less justice and is a violation of
human rights.

World opinion is now strongly veering round to the abolition of death
penalty. A resolution calling on all states that still maintain death
penalty to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing
the death penalty was adopted in November 2007 by the UN General Assembly
Third Committee. India voted against the resolution.

The matter is to come up again before the UN General Assembly in 2008.
India can still salvage its position as an upholder of human rights by
abolishing the death penalty before that.

(source: Column, Rajindar Sachar; The writer is a former chief justice of
the Delhi high court----The Times of India)