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| Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan |
A court stay on the execution of 3 men who plotted the 1991 assassination of former Indian premier Rajiv Gandhi has reignited a debate on whether the death penalty should be abolished in India.
Civil rights groups, newspaper editors and politicians are opposing the death penalty for the three former Tamil Tiger militants, and also calling for India to revoke the death sentence.
Newspapers in the past weeks have been running front-page articles and lengthy editorials denouncing a "savage tradition", television channels have aired numerous debates, and human rights groups have been petitioning for the law to be changed.
But some want the death penalty to be kept, saying it acts as a deterrent and should be carried out for the worst crimes, such as terrorism and brutal murders.
The nationwide debate arose after the executions of Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan were stayed by the Chennai High Court last week. They were scheduled to be hanged on Friday after President Pratibha Patil rejected their final mercy pleas earlier this month, but the Chennai court postponed the executions for eight weeks in the wake of strong opposition.
Mr Gandhi - whose widow Sonia leads the Congress party - was killed by a suicide bomber at a rally, in what was seen as retaliation for his sending of troops into Sri Lanka in the civil war.
There are 17 prisoners on death row with pending mercy petitions, including Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, and Afzal Guru, who attacked Parliament House in 2001.
While death sentences continue to be given out, they are rarely carried out in India. The last execution was in 2004, when Dhananjoy Chatterjee was hanged after being convicted of raping and murdering a schoolgirl in 1990.
Only in the most gruesome or politically charged cases have convicts been put to death, such as in the cases involving the assassins of Mahatma Gandhi and former premier Indira Gandhi.
In many other cases, the Supreme Court, which follows the "rarest of rare" principle, or the president, have commuted the death sentences to life imprisonment.
The ongoing case of Mr Gandhi's killers, however, has brought to the surface opposing views on capital punishment. The Hindu daily, for instance, slammed the "sheer barbarity of taking another person's life even under sanction of law", while human rights groups have repeatedly decried it as cruel.
"For certain crimes, people deserve to be in prison for the rest of their lives, but the death penalty is not a civilised punishment," said Mr Suhas Chakma, director of the Asian Centre for Human Rights.
Even senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, who was a close friend of Mr Gandhi's, is a strong opposer.
"I am dead against the death penalty. I don't think it is a matter of these 3 individuals. We should ensure all people on death row are given sentences for life... where there is no question of parole," he told The Straits Times.
About 140 countries have done away with capital punishment, he pointed out at a weekend party meeting.
But there are others who want the death penalty to stay, especially in the case of terrorists. They include many victims of these attacks and the Bharatiya Janata Party, as well as parts of the ruling Congress party.
Like many others, Supreme Court lawyer K.T.S. Tulsi believes the death penalty works as a deterrent. "India on the average executed one person per year since independence. I think retaining it (the death penalty) on the statute book and not overusing it has maintained its deterrent value," he said.
But Mr Tulsi is critical of the delays in deciding on mercy petitions. "The government policy of not deciding mercy petitions for decades is flawed and needs re-evaluation," he said.
Source: The Straits Times, September 7, 2011
Prisoners to go on fast against death row for Rajiv convicts
Political prisoners along with ordinary inmates of the Central Jail here would go on a day-long fast tomorrow in protest against death penalty to 3 Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convicts -- Perarivalan, Murugan and Shantan.
They will also protest against the capital punishment awarded to Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru and the Jharkhand cultural troupe members Jeetan Marandi, Anil Ram, Manoj Rajwar and Chatrapati Mandal who were involved in the Maoist movement.
According to official sources here this evening, the political prisoners also listed their demands, including treating Maoist prisoners and those branded as maoists as political prisoners and setting them free and repeal of Jail Manual prepared by the British in 1834 and bring in reforms.
Source: New Kerala, September 7, 2011
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Aug 30, 2011
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