Mahatma Gandhi's India cannot afford to lag behind other countries in abolishing capital punishment.
The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Halt all hangings: "Abolitionists around the world argue against the death penalty mainly for two reasons: it has not been proved to be a deterrent and a flawed judicial process can wrongly, and irrevocably, send a person to his death. But over and above these reasoned considerations is the sheer barbarity of taking a human life even under the due process of law. Besides, there is no humane way of executing the death sentence. Death by hanging — the preferred method in India — is unspeakably cruel."
Balwant Singh Rajoana admitted his part in the suicide bombing of Punjab CM Beant Singh, rejected counsel, and accepted the death penalty, arguing that he would not ask for mercy from a government that called him a terrorist but was unconscionably insensitive towards the victims of state-sponsored communal pogroms. He must live if only for the state to demolish his belief that it is a “monster” ready to turn on its own people.
India is yet to abolish capital punishment even as 96 countries around the world have done away with the practice with another 34 countries observing unofficial moratoria on executions.
The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Halt all hangings: "Abolitionists around the world argue against the death penalty mainly for two reasons: it has not been proved to be a deterrent and a flawed judicial process can wrongly, and irrevocably, send a person to his death. But over and above these reasoned considerations is the sheer barbarity of taking a human life even under the due process of law. Besides, there is no humane way of executing the death sentence. Death by hanging — the preferred method in India — is unspeakably cruel."
Balwant Singh Rajoana admitted his part in the suicide bombing of Punjab CM Beant Singh, rejected counsel, and accepted the death penalty, arguing that he would not ask for mercy from a government that called him a terrorist but was unconscionably insensitive towards the victims of state-sponsored communal pogroms. He must live if only for the state to demolish his belief that it is a “monster” ready to turn on its own people.
India is yet to abolish capital punishment even as 96 countries around the world have done away with the practice with another 34 countries observing unofficial moratoria on executions.
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