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Express News Service
The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is a state-sanctioned practice of executing the punishment for the crime a person has committed. As per Amnesty International’s 2022 report, 55 countries retain the capital punishment while 109 countries have completely abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
India retains the death penalty in “rarest of rare cases” (Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab, 1980) and the primary method of execution as given under Section 354 (5) of the Criminal Code of Procedure of 1973 is “hanging by the neck until death”. This mode of execution has been widely debated.
The Law Commission in its report in 2015 stated that India must make the shift from hanging to more humane methods of execution. The “rarest of rare” doctrine states that the death penalty is an absolute, unique exception, and cannot be the rule. Thus the court is to weigh the aggravating and mitigating circumstances of the case before awarding the death penalty in heinous crimes.
There are arguments and counter arguments by both abolitionists and retentionists in India as the topic of the death penalty is highly controversial in terms of political ideology, cultural values or regional preferences. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 protects the rights of individuals and hence human rights organisations claim the death penalty breaches basic human rights, which include the right to life and the right to live free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The uncertainty between life and death that a prisoner endures during his or her incarceration under the sentence of death is the basis for this article.
Based on the experience as a teacher and researcher in the field of criminology, victimology and correctional administration, this piece is an attempt to highlight the plight of the prisoners awaiting the death penalty after being sentenced and convicted. In the Indian judicial system, we have a set of fair trial credentials and rule of law to be adhered in the judicial proceedings of the heinous cases. In many instances, prisoners are kept in the dark and lack awareness about the proceedings in their cases as the case is moved to the appellate court, according to the Death Penalty India Report of National Law University in Delhi. The report highlights that geographical distance plays an important factor in access to information about the progress of the cases. The faith of the families in the criminal justice system is further eroded as the case moves into the realm of the appellate courts and the mercy jurisdiction.
The denial of basic opportunities in education or vocational training for some death row prisoners in Indian prisons only intensifies the uncertainty between life and death as they can do nothing but anticipate their own death. The arguments on the death penalty in courts often look at a person in terms of the crime committed.
There is no real concern about their past or their future. The excruciating mental state of the prisoners living under the sentence of death must be addressed by the criminal justice system in a fair manner. There is a clear dearth of research studies pertaining to the psychological impact on prisoners awaiting death sentence.
Hence, the issue of mental health among prisoners on death row should be studied carefully. Such research will definitely provide new insights to the actors of the criminal justice system and help them understand the mindset of offenders who commit heinous crimes.
The social and economic consequences along with debilitating forms of ostracisation and stigma that families of death row convicts face heightens their vulnerability, driving them deeper into further isolation. The relationship between the victim’s rights and death penalty is another area to be researched in the context of restorative justice.
Wearing a different coloured lens and looking at the death row prisoners as victims of circumstances and commuting sentences to life instead of awarding the death penalty with intense focus on reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders will reduce the number of heinous crimes as already proved in crime reports of different countries that have abolished the death penalty.
Footnote is a weekly column that discusses issues relating to Tamil Nadu
Dr M Priyamvadha is professor, Department of Criminology, Head i/c Department of Women’s Studies, University of Madras, Chennai
Profound effect
The social and economic consequences along with debilitating forms of ostracisation and stigma that families of death row convicts face heighten their vulnerability
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