August 19
INDIA:
It's been 10 years, but India still doesn't want to replace hanging with lethal
injection----A decade after looking at options to replace death by hanging with
a 'more humane' way, ministry says no such proposal being examined.
About a decade after the Centre started looking at various options, including
lethal injection, to find a 'more humane' way to replace death by hanging for
convicts awarded death penalty by the courts, the process seems to have been
discarded without any decision being taken.
In a cryptic response to an RTI application filed by ThePrint asking what
progress, if any, had been made on the proposal to replace the system of
administering death through, what many call gruesome, hanging, the Union
Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said, "...It is stated that at present there is
no such issue (of giving death through a means other than hanging) being
examined in this Ministry."
History of demand
Under Section 354(5) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the mode of
execution of death sentence is hanging till death.
In 2008-2009, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had begun consultations with
stakeholders, including state governments - law and order is a state subject -
on whether death by hanging should be replaced with a 'more humane' method.
The move came after careful examination of the 187th report of the Law
Commission of India on "Mode of Execution of Death Sentence and Incidental
Matters," which was submitted to the government in October 2003.
In its report, the commission recommended that Section 354(5) of the CrPC be
amended by providing an "alternative mode of execution of death sentence by
lethal injection until the accused is dead".
"It will be in the discretion of the Judge to pass an appropriate order
regarding the mode of execution of death sentence. The convict shall, of
course, be heard on the question of mode of execution of death sentence before
such discretion is exercised," it said.
In the same report, the Law Commission also recommended that death sentence
matters must be heard only by a 5-judge bench of the Supreme Court.
Interestingly, the report also mentioned various methods of administering death
that have been used since ages including crucification (Jesus Christ), burning
at the stake, the wheel, guillotine (King Charles I), hanging and garrote,
headman's axe, firing squad, gas chamber, electrocution, and death by hanging.
In its report, the commission also cited the landmark Supreme Court judgment on
death penalty - Bachan Singh versus State of Punjab - where the court observed
that physical pain and suffering which the execution of the sentence of death
(hanging) entails is no less cruel and inhuman.
MHA consultations with states
Between 2008 and 2010, the MHA wrote to state governments seeking their views
on the Law Commission report as also the need to replace death by hanging with
some other method.
Barring a few states, majority of the governments strongly favoured replacing
death by hanging with lethal injection. Several governments also agreed with
the commission recommendation that death sentence matters be heard only by a
5-judge bench of the Supreme Court, with some even suggesting that in case of
even 1 judge dissenting, death should not be awarded.
But, it now seems the Centre has put an end to the consultations and has
decided to stick to the death by hanging method.
Incidentally, the clamour of awarding death sentence to rapists and terrorists
has also been receiving more support in recent times. In a report on the issue
of death penalty, in 2015, the Law Commission suggested abolition of the death
penalty from the statute books, saying it should be awarded only in cases where
the accused is convicted of involvement in a terror case.
However, the government hasn't accepted the report so far.
(source: theprint.in)
*******
Death penalty for child rapists must stay
The Supreme Court has rightly upheld the death penalty because India cannot
furnish free shelter, food and education to child rapists, terrorists and
dissolute murderers. They must be sent to meet their Maker who alone knows why
some human beings were born notwithstanding the United Nations insisting that
the death penalty should be gradually reduced in all member countries until the
utopia of its complete abolition is reached.
India has adopted a middle path between Saudi Arabia, which beheads those
accused of crimes against morality and the Vatican, which teaches that as God
is the creator of life, no country has the right to execute any human being,
including murderers and child rapists. Human rights activists who toe this line
find themselves being isolated within India.
A middle path is the correct path which is why the Central government wants to
retain the death penalty. Although government statistics claim 52 persons were
executed since independence, the People???s Union for Civil Liberties located
records of 1,422 executions from 1953 to 1963 alone while the authoritative Law
Commission of India declared that 1410 convicts were executed in the same
period.
Research published by the National Law University (NLU), Delhi on death row
convicts since 2000 found that of the 1,617 prisoners sentenced to death by
trial courts in India, capital punishment was confirmed in only 71 cases. So,
the fact that the death sentence is imposed in the rarest of rare cases where
the criminal shows no remorse for his heinous crime has been proved beyond
doubt.
On August 31, 2015, the Law Commission of India submitted a report to the
government which recommended the abolition of capital punishment for all crimes
in India, except waging war against the nation or for terrorism-related
offences. The report cited several factors to justify abolishing the death
penalty, including its abolition by 140 other nations, its arbitrary and flawed
application and its lack of deterrence on criminals.
In colonial India, death was prescribed for a slew of capital crimes enumerated
in the Indian Penal Code, 1860. So, capital punishment was retained after 1947
with Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte being the 1st to be hung to death after
Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on November 15, 1949. India executed dreaded
terrorists Ajmal Ali Kasab on November 21, 2012, Afzal Guru on February 9, 2013
and Yakub Memon on July 30, 2015. These 3 terrorists killed at least 300 people
between them.
The Supreme Court pronounced in the 1980 case of Bachchan Singh versus State of
Punjab that the death sentence was to be pronounced only in the rarest of rare
cases when there was a high degree of brutality. This judgment conformed to the
1973 judgment of the same court in Jagmohan Singh versus State of Uttar Pradesh
and the 1979 judgment of Rajendra Prasad versus State of Uttar Pradesh.
The Supreme Court also ruled that honour killings fell within the "rarest of
the rare" category as well as on police officers who showed brutality in fake
encounter killings. But apart from the Indian Penal Code, there is a provision
under The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 (II), that if any person
commits sati, whoever abets the commission of such sati, either directly or
indirectly, shall be punishable with death.
The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,
1989 was enacted to prevent the commission of offences of atrocities against
the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. Under Section
3(2)(i) of the Act, bearing false witness in a capital case against a member of
scheduled caste or tribe, resulting in that person's conviction and execution,
carries the death penalty.
In 1989, the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was passed
which made the death penalty mandatory for a 2nd offence of "large scale
narcotics trafficking". This is perfectly in consonance with contemporary
thinking because to ruin the lives of youth who take to drugs and escape, the
death penalty would be a violation of the right to life of victims.
In recent years, the death penalty has been imposed under new anti-terrorism
legislation for people convicted of terrorist activities. On February 3, 2013,
in response to public outcry over a brutal gang rape in Delhi, the Centre
passed an ordinance which made the death penalty mandatory for rape that led to
death or left the victim in a "persistent vegetative state". Repeat rape
offenders under the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 could also be sentenced
to death.
In January 2014, a three-judge panel headed by Chief Justice of India,
Palanisamy Sathasivam, commuted sentences of 15 death row convicts, ruling that
the "inordinate and inexplicable delay is a ground for commuting death penalty
to life sentence". The Supreme Court ruled that delays ranging from 7 to 11
years in the disposal of mercy pleas are grounds for clemency. The same panel
also passed a set of guidelines for the execution of a death row convict, which
included a 14-day gap from the receipt of communication of the rejection of the
mercy petition to the execution date.
In February 2014, the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of Rajiv
Gandhi's killers on the basis of a 11-year delay in deciding on their mercy
plea. It was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment. In March 2014, the
Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar,
convicted in a 1993 Delhi bombings case, to life imprisonment, because of
unexplained delay of 8 years in disposal of mercy petitions and because of
mental illness.
And so to execute a criminal who has killed others may be revenge by the State
but it is sweet revenge for those innocents who have been killed in cold blood.
Ajmal Kasab, Afzal Guru and Yakub Memon can testify to that were they alive.
Those who raped and brutalised Jyoti Singh Pandey deserve death for they are
unfit to live on this earth.
(source: Olav Albuquerque holds a PhD in law and is a journalist-cum-lawyer of
the Bombay high court----feepressjournal.in)
IRAN----executions
6 Unannounced Executions in Iran
According to new information obtained by IHR, 6 prisoners were hanged at Rajai
Shahr Prison on murder charges in early August.
According to a close source, on the morning of Wednesday, August 1, 6 prisoners
were executed at Rajai Shahr Prison. The prisoners, all sentenced to death on
murder charges, were transferred to the solitary confinement on Saturday, July
28.
Only 1 of the inmates, who were transferred to the solitary confinement, was
able to return to his cell by asking for time from the plaintiffs, the other 6
were executed.
Neither the state-run media nor the Iranian Judiciary's Public Relations
announced these executions.
Considering the high number of unannounced executions, as well as the measures
were taken by the authorities to prevent leaking news from prisons, there is a
high probability that the number of the executions carried out in the last few
months is much higher than what human rights organizations are aware of.
The suppression of Iranian human rights activists whose activities involved
raising awareness and informing people also gives a cause for concern.
According to confirmed reports by Iran Human Rights (IHR), at least 36 people
were executed in different Iranian cities in the month of July, 24 of whom were
sentenced to death on murder charges.
(source: Iran Human Rights)
LIBYA:
Libya rejects criticism of death sentence of 45 former regime supporters
Libyan UN-backed Ministry of Justice on Sunday rejected foreign opposition to a
court sentence of 45 former regime supporters to death.
"The Ministry of Justice confirms the fairness, integrity and independence of
the Libyan judiciary, especially that the defendants of the case had received
fair trial with all legal guarantees, and that they were able to defend
themselves," the ministry said in a statement.
"The ministry calls on all parties, particularly international organizations
and missions, to refrain from interference in Libyan sovereign affairs,
especially judiciary," the statement added.
Libya's Court of Appeal on Wednesday sentenced 45 supporters of former leader
Muammar Gaddafi's regime to death over the killing of demonstrators in the
capital Tripoli during the 2011 uprising.
UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Thursday expressed concern over the
court's death sentence, opposing "the imposition of the death penalty as a
matter of principle."
The case goes back to Aug. 21, 2011, when supporters of the Gaddafi regime
killed a number of civilian demonstrators near the highway in the capital
Tripoli.
Video footage circulated showed Gaddafi supporters forcing the demonstrators to
kneel before killing them on the spot.
(source: xinhuanet.com)
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