Death Penalty

Table of Contents

Death Penalty- Relevance for UPSC Exam

General Studies II- Executive and Judiciary

Death Penalty: In News

The Supreme Court has said that fundamental aspects of death penalty sentencing need re-examination.

A three-judge bench acknowledged that there are serious problems in India’s death penalty regime, indicating that the current state of death penalty sentencing is untenable.

What is Death Penalty?

The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is the harshest form of punishment available under any criminal law in existence anywhere in the world.

It should be distinguished from extrajudicial executions carried out without due process of law.
The term death penalty is sometimes used interchangeably with capital punishment, though imposition of the penalty is not always followed by execution, because of the possibility of commutation to life imprisonment.

Death Penalty: Historical Background

In Jagmohan Singh vs State of UP’ (1973), then in ‘Rajendra Prasad vs State of UP’ (1979), and finally in ‘Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab’ (1980)the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutional validity of the death penalty.
It said that if capital punishment is provided in the law and the procedure is a fair, just and reasonable one, the death sentence can be awarded to a convict.
This will, however, only be in the “rarest of rare” cases, and the courts should render “special reasons” while sending a person to the gallows.

Death Penalty: Sentencing

The term “Capital Punishment” stands for most severe form of punishment.
It is the punishment which is to be awarded for the most heinous, grievous and detestable crimes against humanity.
While the definition and extent of such crimes vary, the implication of capital punishment has always been the death sentence.

Death Penalty: International framework

ICCPR:
Despite the fact that the death penalty was still in practice in the majority of countries in the early 1960s, the drafters of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) have already begun efforts to have it abolished in international law.
Although Article 6 of the ICCPR allows for the use of the death penalty in restricted circumstances, it also states that nothing in this Article shall be invoked to delay or hinder any State Party to the present Covenant from abolishing capital punishment.
The ICCPR’s Second Optional Protocol aims to abolish the death penalty.
UN ECOSOC:
The UN Economic and Social Council enacted Safeguards in 1984, ensuring that persons facing the death penalty have their rights protected.
The UN General Assembly ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR in 1989, 33 years after the adoption of the Covenant itself, giving abolition a powerful fresh boost. Members of the Protocol’s signatories pledged not to execute anyone within their domains.
Resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly:
The General Assembly urged states to observe international standards that protect the rights of persons facing the death sentence in a series of resolutions enacted in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018, and to gradually reduce the number of offences punishable by death.
The UN General Assembly ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR in 1989, giving abolition a powerful fresh boost.
Members of Protocol’s signatories pledged not to execute anyone within their domains.

Why death penalty should be abolished?

Innocent execution: Innocent individuals have been executed in the past and will continue to be executed in the future. Between 2000 and 2014, the Supreme Court and high courts acquitted a fifth of individuals sentenced to death by trial courts.
Arbitrariness: The possibility of the death penalty being applied arbitrarily cannot be ruled out. According to the National Law University Delhi’s Death Penalty India Report 2016 (DPIR), approximately 75% of all convicts sentenced to death in India are from socio-economically underprivileged categories, such as Dalits, OBCs, and religious minorities.
Eye for an eye:Reformative justice is more productive, that innocent people are often killed in the search for retribution, and that “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Deterrence is a myth:Death penalty is not a deterrent to capital crimes state that there is no evidence to support the claim that the penalty is a deterrent.

Conclusion

The death penalty is one of the most controversial issues in the world, and it is a topic that is constantly being debated. Over 70% of the world’s countries have abolished capital punishment in law or practice. New appropriate regulations should be created to ensure the successful execution of alternatives to capital punishment, as well as advice from professionals.