Amnesty Intl reignites death penalty debate in India

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According to Mukul Sharma, regional head of Amnesty International, the report titled "Lethal Lottery - The Death Penalty in India, A study of Supreme Court judgments in death penalty cases 1950-2006," a 10-year research of judgments on death sentences handed down over five decades has revealed inconsistencies in the investigation, trial, sentencing and appeal stages.

"The death penalty does not deter crime at all and especially when the judicial system that puts them has been shown by this extensive research to be unfair," Sharma said, urging the Indian Government to join the growing number of nations that have abolished capital punishment.

Huge backlog of cases, cumbersome judicial process and judicial red tape and pressure from human rights groups and political groups have led to executions being stalled, though official records show that 140 convicts have been handed over death penalties in the last two years. The last execution carried out in India was in 2004.

Out of 700 death sentence cases, the Supreme Court has acquitted the convicts in at least 100 of the cases, the human rights watchdog said.

"As the world moves steadily away from the use of the death penalty, the time has come for the Indian authorities to abolish this outmoded form of punishment," the report said, adding, "Amnesty International fears that the leaders of India may lack the political courage and human rights leadership necessary to abolish the death penalty."

According to Sharma, the poor and the illiterate convicts are usually handed the death penalty while most rich or politically influential convicts escape the gallows.

"Most death sentences handed down in India are based on circumstantial evidence and a lot depends on how rich is the under-trial," he said.

Discrepancy in judicial decisions, the Amnesty chief said, is highlighted by the fact that in 86 cases researched by the group, three different courts had passed three different verdicts.

"At the end of the day, life and death in India for the poorer convicts on death row is a like a lottery," Sharma said.

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