Abolish Death Penalty India: hanging

Showing posts with label hanging. Show all posts

Sunday, December 23, 2018

Experts say lethal injection is not an alternative to hanging

Written by Sonakshi Awasthi |New Delhi |Published: January 17, 2018 2:36:10 pm

Although the law commission report discussed whether the discretion of mode of execution should lie with the judge or the convict, the question of who would provide the injections to convicts remains unanswered.

Raising an ethical issue, former president of the Indian Medical Association, KK Aggarwal, said a judge cannot force a doctor to give an injection.

A lawyer had filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of a provision in the Criminal Procedure Code which provides that the mode of execution of death penalty would be hanging by the neck. The SC, however, said that it’s the Centre’s prerogative to decide the modes of carrying out capital punishment. “We can’t say what should be the mode of carrying out a death sentence. Tell us what is happening in other countries,” the apex court asked the Centre. In its reply, the Centre said lethal injection was “not workable” as there were several instances of it failing. Rishi Malhotra, the petitioner, said the provision of Criminal Procedure Code stating death penalty is “violative of Article 21 (right to life and liberty) of the Constitution” and being “barbaric, inhuman and cruel”. “There have been cases where the neck has been fractured, yet the man is alive,” Malhotra said.

Rishi Malhotra

The 187th report of the Law Commission on mode of execution of death sentence stated in length about the use of lethal injections as an alternative apart from other methods which were used earlier. The Commission received responses from high court and subordinate court judges on the report and it stated, “All of the 80% judges who are in favour of amendment of Section 354(5) have suggested that administering the lethal injection should be the other mode of execution of death sentence.” Most of the states in the US use lethal injections as an alternative means to end lives of convicts in cases of death penalty. However, administration of a lethal injection on a convict does come with complications and USA has been facing concerns regarding the method as well. “In some cases of death penalty in USA, the death has not been instantaneous. It has been prolonged over 15-30 minutes and with suffering,” said chairman of Fortis Escorts Heart Institute Ashok Seth.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/experts-say-lethal-injection-is-not-an-alternative-to-hanging-5028445/ (Accessed 24 December 2018)

Hanging to death: Supreme Court to examine mode of execution

By PTI |New Delhi |Published: October 6, 2017 7:43:14 pm

Lawyer Rishi Malhotra, who filed the PIL seeking relief under Article 21 (Right to Life) of the Constitution and said the Article must provide for the right of a condemned prisoner to have a dignified mode of execution.

‘Hang by the neck till death.’ This legal mode of executing a death row convict on Friday came under the scanner of the Supreme Court which sought the government’s response on a plea seeking setting aside of the legal provision. Terming the Constitution as a “compassionate” and “organic” guiding book, a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the legislature can think of changing the law so that a convict, facing death penalty, dies “in peace and not in pain”. The bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, issued notice to the Centre and sought its response within three weeks on the PIL, which also referred to the 187th Report of the Law Commission advocating removal of the present mode of execution from the statute.

Lawyer Rishi Malhotra, who filed the PIL in his personal capacity, referred to Article 21 (Right to Life) of the Constitution and said it also included the right of a condemned prisoner to have a dignified mode of execution so that death becomes less painful. The plea said the Law Commission in its 187th Report had noted that there was a significant increase in the number of countries where hanging has been abolished and substituted by electrocution, shooting or lethal injection as the method of execution. “It had categorically opined that hanging is undoubtedly accompanied by intense physical torture and pain,” the plea said. The lawyer also referred to various apex court judgements in which the practise of hanging a death row convict has been assailed.

The plea said “dying with dignity is part of right of life” and the present practice of executing a death row convict by hanging involves “prolonged pain and suffering”. The present procedure can be replaced with intravenous lethal injection, shooting, electrocution or gas chamber in which death is just a matter of minutes, it said. The PIL sought quashing of section 354(5) of the Criminal Procedure Code, which states that when a person is sentenced to death, the sentence shall direct that he be hanged by the neck till he is dead. It said that execution was not only “barbaric, inhuman and cruel”, but also against the resolutions adopted by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

The plea also said that execution should be as quick and as simple as possible and free from anything that unnecessarily sharpens the poignancy of the prisoner’s apprehension. It sought to declare “right to die by a dignified procedure of death as a fundamental right as defined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India”. “This also includes the right to a dignified life up to the point of death including a dignified procedure of death. In other words, this may include the right of a dying man to also die with dignity when his life is ebbing out,” it added. Drawing a comparison, the petition said that while in hanging, the entire execution process takes over 40 minutes to declare prisoner to be dead, the shooting process involves not more than few minutes. In case of intravenous lethal injection, it is all over in 5 minutes. “The Act of the execution should produce immediate unconsciousness passing quickly into the death. It should be decent. It should not involve mutilation,” the plea added.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/hanging-to-death-supreme-court-to-examine-mode-of-execution-4877901/ (Accessed 23 December 2018)

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

1993 Mumbai blasts: Death row convict Yakub Memon could be hanged on 30 July 2015

The only convict sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai, Yakub Memon, is reportedly set to be hanged on 30 July subject to the apex court hearing his plea for mercy days earlier. According to a DNA report, the 53-year-old convict could be hanged as the result of a Tada (Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act) court issued a warrant to carry out the sentence as per which he is scheduled to be executed on 30 July at 7 am in the Nagpur Central Jail. The report said that Memon has moved a petition in the Supreme Court hoping to stay the execution, but for now, the state government has given its sanction for the execution and in keeping with procedure his family has also been informed of the impending hanging.

Yakub Memon

On 10 April, the Supreme Court had rejected a petition filed by Memon seeking to stay the death sentence. Memon, a former chartered accountant, is the brother of the prime accused in the case Tiger Memon. Earlier on March 21, 2013, the apex court had upheld the death sentence of Memon. The multiple blasts had claimed 257 lives and left 713 injured. CBI, which probed the blasts, had alleged that the conspiracy was hatched by Dawood Ibrahim and other absconding persons, including Yakub's brother Tiger Memon, who is believed to be hiding in Pakistan.

The court had commuted the death penalty awarded by a special TADA court to 10 others, who had planted RDX explosives-laden vehicles at various places in Mumbai, to life term by distinguishing their roles from that of Memon. Yakub, who owned an export firm allegedly handled his brother, gangster Tiger Memon’s, funds. He was accused of having funded the training of 15 youths who were sent to Pakistan for training in the use of arms and ammunition and funding the escape of the family following the blasts. The Memon family, including Yakub, had fled Mumbai before the blasts. After reportedly meeting with a family lawyer in Kathmandu in July 1994, Yakub was set to return to Karachi after being told that he was unlikely to get much mercy if he did surrender to Indian authorities.

But his being caught with multiple passports at the Kathmandu airport set off a chain of events that resulted in all the other members of the Memon family also being brought to India. His arrest remains controversial. Officially Yakub was arrested on the morning of 5 August 1994, inexplicably from the New Delhi railway station, far away from Pakistan or Dubai where the Memon family was said to be in hiding. The mercy plea of Memon had earlier been rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee on 21 May, 2014. The decision had been taken by the President following recommendations of the Maharashtra government and the Home Ministry that the mercy petition of Memon be rejected.

Updated Date: Jul 15, 2015 14:58 PM

Source: https://www.firstpost.com/india/1993-mumbai-blasts-death-row-convict-yakub-memon-could-be-hanged-on-30-july-2342974.html (Accessed on 18 December 2018)

Friday, May 29, 2015

Death sentence: How the ropes used in EXECUTION are tested?

Dailybhaskar.com | May 28, 2015, 11:10AM IST

New Delhi: Supreme Court has said that convicts can't be hanged secretly and hurriedly. The apex court has ruled that the execution of death sentence cannot be carried out in an arbitrary, hurried and secret manner without allowing death row convicts all legal remedies and meet family members.

A lot of efforts are made to ensure that execution is carried out in accordance with the law. It is highly important the rope used in the execution is of top quality and tested before the execution.

Here are the details given in 'Consultation paper on mode of execution of death sentence' by Law Commission of India:

A Manilla rope one inch in diameter shall be used for executions. At least two such ropes in serviceable condition shall be maintained at every jail where executions are liable to take place.

The rope should be 19 feet in length, well twisted, and fully stretched. It should be of equal thickness, capable of passing readily through the noose-ring and sufficiently strong to bear a strain of 280 lbs. with a 7 foot drop.

Source: http://daily.bhaskar.com/news/NAT-TOP-death-sentence-supreme-court-on-death-sentence-rights-of-prisoner-in-india-5006208-PHO.html [last accessed 29.05.2015]

The Death Penalty Scenario in India

India is one of the 193 countries that retains death penalty. There has always been a few imminent judges who have pronounced compelling verdicts upholding the rights of prisoners on death row. There has been increasing debate in various platforms advocating abolition of death penalty or at least to rethink sentencing policies in India. The Indian government has however always been committed to the retention of the death penalty, irrespective of their political ideology. India has voted against a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) draft resolution on the use of death penalty, saying it goes against the statutory law of the country where an execution is carried out in the "rarest of rare" cases. India retains the death penalty as punishment for a number of crimes including murder, kidnapping, terrorism, desertion, inducement to suicide of a minor or a mentally-retarded person and has more recently in 2013 come to include the offence of rape in certain circumstances. Most recently, there is an outrage over child rape and murder.

After observing an unofficial moratorium of 8 years in India, the Indian Government in November 2012 carried out the execution of Ajmal Kasab, convicted in the Mumbai attacks case, without public knowledge. This was followed by the secret execution of Afzal Guru, convicted in the Parliament attack case of 2001, in February 2013, under similar circumstances, without intimating his immediate family or affording a chance of judicial review. In both cases, the executions were carried out under covert operations conducted by the Government immediately upon rejection of their mercy petitions. Before these executions, the last execution to be carried out in India was that of Dhananjoy Chatterjee in 2004 who was convicted of rape and murder and which sentence was carried out after he had spent 13 years in solitary confinement. Following this, several mercy petitions of death row convicts have come to be rejected. The fear of execution of such convicts is imminent. Bolstered by the Government's unapologetic conduct and public outcry, especially in recent cases of rape and murder reported in the country, the courts are continuing to hand down death sentences at an alarming rate.

In the recent past, there have been a few empirical studies (mainly four) conducted with prisoners on death row. This has highlighted the situation of prisoners on death row.

(1) Most recently the India Exclusion Report 2017-18 found that fair trial rights and guarantees are reduced to a nullity and seeks to breach the citadel of the collective silence. It further said that Convicts on death row in India belong to groups marginalised along the axes of caste, religion, economic vulnerability and educational deprivation, and their fair trial rights, though a part of the Right to Life guaranteed by the Constitution, are invariably non-existent, a survey of 371 out of the 385 persons living under the death sentence and their families has revealed.

(2) Another study was The Death Penalty Research Project (2015) which was conceived with an aim to document the socio-economic profile of prisoners sentenced to death in India and map their experience within the criminal justice system.

There were two other academic studies that were done conducted by Dr. Reena Mary George –

(3)“Voices of prisoners surviving the death row in India” (2014) done through the University of Vienna under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Christoph Reinprecht (Sociology) and Prof. Dr. Manfred Nowak (Law and Ex-United Nations Rapporteur on Torture). George’s research highlights three salient features, namely: poverty, social exclusion and marginalisation are antecedent to death penalty; death penalty is a constructed account by the state machinery; and prisoners on death row situate dignity higher in the juxtaposition of death and dignity.

(4) Another one “Death Penalty – A Human Rights Perspective” (2009) done through the University of Mumbai under the guidance of Retired Justice Hosbet Suresh. This was a study in Maharashtra with the objectives to firstly study the impact of death penalty on the social, mental, and physical being of the inmate and secondly, to study the perception of opinion leaders on death penalty with reference to human rights. All the above reports are public documents.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, Prison Statistics 2015, there are 101 prisoners sentenced to death. The actual figure of sentences originally awarded is much higher considering the death sentences of 49 convicts came to be commuted to life imprisonment in the said period. As of today, almost in 2019, the figures are unknown through government statistics, however, research centres claim this figure to be around 371 convicts. During the 1980s the Supreme Court sought to restrict the use of the death penalty by characterizing it as a punishment reserved only for the “rarest of the rare” cases. The doctrine has not had the desired effect. According to a former chief justice of the Delhi High Court, Rajindar Sachar: “after the rarest of rare doctrine was introduced in 1980, the Supreme Court confirmed death penalty in 40 per cent of cases in the period 1980-90 while it was 37.7 per cent between 1970 and 1980. For the high courts it rose from 59 per cent in 1970-80 to 65 per cent during 1980-90”. Over the past two decades the death penalty has been extended to include more crimes and been handed down with increasing frequency.

Most recently while commuting a sentence in Supreme Court (2018), Justice Joseph did not seek the reconsideration of the Bachan Singh judgment, but only sought to re-examine the purpose and practice of the death penalty, and whether as a punishment, it serves any goal at all. In other words, the death penalty can continue to remain constitutionally valid because of the Bachan Singh judgment, but its application in substantive cases coming before the court must be restricted to only those cases which meet the criteria laid down in that case.

While updating the blog and conducting my own empirical studies, I observed the heinous nature of the crimes that were committed and thought about the families, about their loss, about the victims who for no fault of their own died. If I lost my relative or a dear friend, would I still oppose death penalty and would I still advocate to abolish the death sentence? Having worked in the criminal justice system and also having the seen the other side, where often it is the marginalized, vulnerable and oppressed who are on death row makes me want to advocate for abolition of this punishment. Victims should definitely get justice for their loss, for their pain. No one should escape the rule of law. As long as humanity exists; crime will exist. Should we not re-consider our sentencing policies?

Reena Mary George