Why Should We Oppose Death Penalty

To

His Excellency,
The President of India,
Rashtrapathi Bhavan,
New Delhi – 110 001.

Sub:

Yours Excellency,

We appreciate your initiative for creating a debate on abolishing Death Penalty in India. The points in observation note that has forwarded to Home Ministry (Source : Frontline November 5) was extra ordinary, which shows that Death Penalty will die at the earliest.

WHY SHOULD WE OPPOSE THE DEATH PENALTY?

The thoughts of a Man on Death Row

The feelings of some one who knows that he will not be alive, say, a month from now, not because he is terminally ill, but because he will be killed by the state!.

It is legitimate to ask how a person behaves when he knows that he has a specified number of days to live a specific number of mornings, afternoons, evenings and nights to live and experience before he enters the realm of the unknown.

It is said that many such death row prisoners have probably after an initial period of terror and despair – become calm & collected, resigning themselves to their fate, possibly thinking that, after all, there is an afterlife, that existence in the ordinary sense of the word will not be impaired although it may take on a different form.

This is probably why many death-row-prisoners turn to religions books, especially to passages which try to throw light on life after death, strong & disciplined minds are more than likely to have resource to such simulated ‘peace’ particularly so if they have transgressed the law of the land when indulging in activity springing from deep ideological beliefs.
Only poor Human beings hanged

Most of the study on Death Penalty has concluded that only the ‘poorest of poor’ are sentenced to Hanging. The installed question is. Do the better off get away with heinous crime?

Justice on Revenge

Apart from victim family, society also demands the killing, society wants to feel that it is safer without him, that it is a warning to other, but most of all because society wants to see him punished.

Yet if society’s call is for blood, for punishment, for revenge against the murderer, why are courts trying to find a more ‘humane method’ with which to kill? The killing / execution should be an “quick and simple as possible, free from anything that Sharpens the poignancy of the prisoner’s apprehension.

An Unjust Justice

It is often said that capital punishment is given to those without capital. Most often, those on the death row are those least able to defend themselves in court. The death penalty is applied arbitrarily, depending on such random factors on the competence of lawyers, the strength of evidence, the tampering of proof, the capacity of witnesses to sustain cross examination, the integrity of the witness, plea-bargain or pardons granted.

In this context, the denial of an automatic right of appeal to the supreme court in case the death sentence is confirmed by the High Court requires to be examined. We need to review the right of the High Court to reject death sentence appeals. To prevent the Miscarriage of Justice the death sentence awardees should have an automatic right to appeal to the highest court in the land.

The death penalty has an essential fault – it is irrevocable. Mistakes can be rectified, death cannot. Yet mistakes are inevitable in all systems of Justice, however scrupulous the process and however honest the participants.

World Wide abolition

By the end of 1998, 67 countries had abolished the Death Penalty for all offences and 14 for all but exceptional offences, such as war time crimes, at least 24 countries, which retained the death penalty, in law, were considered abolitionist in practice – they had not executed any one for atleast 10 years or had made as international commitment not to carryout creations.

Some countries reduced the scope of the Death Penalty. A few countries have taken the process of abolishing capital punishment India is today debating whether Death Penalty should be abolished. India is party to the International covenant on civil and political rights (ICCPR) that require a progression towards abolition of Death Penalty.

Growing Opposition

Despite such developments, growing international opposition to the Death Penalty was symbolished in 1998 with the adoption in July of the statue of the international criminal court. After much debate it was decided to exclude the Death Penalty on punishment for what are arguably the most heinous crimes – genocide, other crimes against humanity and war crimes. The clear implication is that if the Death Penalty should not be used for the worst possible crimes, then it should not be used for lesser crimes in other words, it should never be used.

As societies develop, we move away from barbaric practices so that criminals are punished, but more importantly, are corrected.

Violates the right to life

Death penalty violates the right to life guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ICCPR. These documents affirm this right in several way. For instance, they clearly state that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, in human or degrading treatment or punishment. It is clear that, like torture, an execution is an extreme form of physical and mental assault on a person, already rendered helpless by incarceration. If hanging a woman by her arms until she experiences pain is rightly considered torture, how does one describe hanging her by the neck until she is dead?

Besides, neither the physical pain caused by the action of killing a human being, nor the psychological suffering caused by a foreknowledge of death at the hands of the State be quantified. Whether a death sentence is carried out six months after a summary trial, six weeks after a mass trial or after 16 years of lengthy legal proceedings, the persons executed is subjected to uniquely cruel, in human and degrading treatment and punishment. Therefore, on no account can a State justify imposition of death penalty, while continues to affirm the right to life.

Silence Political Opponents

Death penalty is used by some States to silence political opponents or to eliminate “troublesome’ individuals. Many of us are familiar with the case of the famous Nigerian writer and human rights activist, Ken Siro Wiwa who was executed by his country’s military regime. His crime: he had dared to speak for his Ogoni people, whose land and other natural resources were being plundered by multinationals. Death penalty, therefore, severs, once and for all, a person’s right to hold opinions and to speak freely.

Thanking you,

Yours Sincerely,

CAMPAIGN AGAINST DEATH PENALTY

The Campaign is the result of voluntary efforts of committed individuals and organisations as well as the commitment of intellectuals and writers who generously devote their time for it. As such all those who are associated with it, either as National Committee members or as those who work in building up public opinion against death penalty or in attempting to get clemency for particular prisoners waiting in the death row are keen to make it a broad based nation-wide campaign and involve in it as many people as possible who would give their time and energy on a purely voluntary basis.

The Campaign Against Death Penalty was launched early last year in Chennai in a public meeting addressed by Justice V.R.Krishna Iyer. In response to the suggestions from the floor, Justice Krishna Iyer, respecting the sentiments of the members of the audience, agreed to be the Chairperson of the Campaign and as requested by him K.Manoharan, well known Writer and Human Rights Activists accepted the responsibilities of the Convenor. The National Committee was gradually built up. We have been able to carry on with activities such as bringing out literature on the need to abolish death penalty, organizing public meetings, participating in the debates in electronic media, writing for news papers, writing mercy petitions for clemency for those in the death row and collecting signatures from eminent citizens and requesting them to intervene on behalf of the condemned prisoners. For the first time in Tamil Nadu we brought together hundreds of writers in a special conference against death penalty. Our friends in other civil and human rights organisations in Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Kerala, Karnataka and Delhi have also organized conferences and campaigns against death penalty. We share their experiences and exchange literature and other material with them.