India's court commutes Gandhi killers' death sentence to life terms

India's Supreme Court commuted death sentences on 3 men for killing former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to life imprisonment on Tuesday because of an 11-year delay in deciding on their petitions for mercy.

Gandhi was killed by an ethnic Tamil suicide bomber while campaigning in an election in the southern Indian town of Sriperumbudur in May 1991.

The 3 Indian men - tried as Santhan, Murugan, Perarivalan - were members of a Sri Lankan ethnic Tamil separatist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Gandhi's killing was seen as an act of retaliation after he sent Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka in 1987.

The 3 were convicted of involvement in 1998 and sentenced to death by hanging. A 4th person, a woman, was also given the death sentence but it was later commuted to a life term.

The men appealed for mercy but successive Indian presidents gave no decision until 2011, when their plea was rejected.

"Delay in deciding mercy pleas is one of the grounds to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment," the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam said in its order.

Gandhi's widow, Sonia, is head of the Congress party while their son, Rahul, leads its campaign for elections in the next few months.

Rajiv Gandhi's mother, Indira, was assassinated in 1984 over the army's storming of the Golden Templein Amritsar to crush a Sikh militant movement.

The death penalty remains in force in India despite a long campaign by human rights groups to abolish it. It has rarely been carried out, however.

About 500 people are on death row, many of whom have been there for years.

In November 2012, India ended what many rights groups had interpreted as an undeclared moratorium on capital punishment when it executed a gunman convicted for the 2008 militant attack on Mumbai. 3 months later, it hanged a man from Kashmir for a 2001 militant attack on parliament.

The Supreme Court said on Tuesday the administration must move faster on deciding on mercy petitions in the interest of justice.

Last month, the Supreme Court commuted the sentences of 15 death row prisoners to life in jail on the grounds of delay.

Source: World Bulletin, Feb. 18, 2014

INDIA: Supreme Court upholds rights of death row prisoners

A historic decision by India's Supreme Court commuting the death sentences of 15 prisoners and setting out guidelines to safeguard the rights of prisoners on death row and their families is a positive step for human rights in the country, Amnesty International India said today.

The Supreme Court commuted the death sentences of Suresh, Ramji, Bilavendran, Simon, Gnanprakasham, Meesekar Madaiah, Praveen Kumar, Gurmeet Singh, Sonia Chaudhury, Sanjeev Chaudhury, Jafar Ali, Shivu and Jadeswamy, on the ground of delay in the disposal of their mercy petitions by the President ranging between 5 and 12 years.

The Court commuted the death sentences of Sundar Singh and Magan Lal Barela on the ground that they suffer from mental illness.

"While acknowledging the need to strike a balance between the rights of the accused as well as the victims, this momentous decision reaffirms the rights guaranteed to death row prisoners under the Constitution of India and international law and standards" said G Ananthapadmanabhan, Chief Executive, Amnesty International India.

"The verdict places a strong emphasis on the human rights of all persons, and should steer the country towards completely doing away with the death penalty."

Yug Mohit Chaudhry, one of the lawyers representing prisoners affected by the decision, told Amnesty International India, "This judgment is a tribute to Indian constitutional values and the independence of the judiciary. It recognizes that death row prisoners have rights that the court will protect."

In its judgment, the Supreme Court ruled that "undue, inordinate and unreasonable delay in execution of death sentence [amounts to] torture" and was a ground for commutation of sentence. Importantly, the Court ruled to be bad law a previous decision in the case of Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, which stated that prisoners convicted of terrorism-related offences could not appeal for commutation on grounds of inordinate delay.

Quoting extensively from international treaties and standards, the court stated that the execution of people suffering from mental illness would be unconstitutional. It ruled that "insanity" or mental illness would be a factor that warranted commutation of a death sentence. The Court also reiterated that solitary confinement of a prisoner on death row was unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court also laid down guidelines on the treatment of people under sentence of death, in a move that could end the trend towards secrecy in executions in 2012 and 2013. According to the guidelines, prisoners on death row should receive legal aid, be informed about the rejection of their mercy petitions and in writing, have their mental and physical conditions regularly checked and be allowed to meet their family members before execution, which should not happen before 2 weeks from the communication of the rejection of the mercy petition.

The Court's ruling is likely to affect the cases of at least 6 other prisoners on death row - Murugan, Santhan, Arivu (aka Perarivalan), Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, Saibanna Natikar and B A Umesh, who are also seeking commutation on the grounds of delay in the disposal of their mercy petitions.

"This verdict provides an opportunity for India to rethink its use of the death penalty," said G Ananthapadmanabhan.

"The death penalty has not been shown to have any particular deterrent effect. UN experts and bodies, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, have said that suggestions that the death penalty has a meaningful deterrent effect have been overstated.

"Research by Amnesty International and the People's Union for Civil Liberties into India Supreme Court judgements on the death penalty has also revealed that the imposition of death sentences in India is highly arbitrary, and disproportionately affects those with little wealth or influence.

"The death penalty is the ultimate, irreversible denial of human rights. While today's verdict is welcome, it does not do away with this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. The government must carry forward the impetus the ruling has provided to place a moratorium on all executions and abolish the death penalty altogether."

Source: Amnesty International, January 22, 2014

SC gives 14 days' buffer to death row convicts

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed all prison authorities to give a gap of 14 days between intimation of rejection of mercy petition to the condemned prisoner and his actual execution to allow him to prepare mentally to make peace with god, prepare his will and meet family and friends one last time.

It also was critical of the practice in certain jails to put a person in solitary confinement immediately after the trial court awarded death penalty after conviction and said a condemned prisoner could be put alone in a single cell only in the last 14 days of his life and not before that.

A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam found that some prison manuals did not provide for any minimum period between the President's decision to reject a mercy petition being communicated to the condemned prisoner and his family members and the actual date of his execution. "Some prison manuals have a minimum period of one day while others have 14 days," it said.

It said there was a need to provide a minimum gap of 14 days between receipt of communication of rejection of mercy petition and scheduled execution as it would allow the condemned prisoner -

* to prepare himself mentally for execution, to make peace with god, prepare his will and settle other earthly affairs

* to have a last and final meeting with his family members who might have to travel long distance

* to allow him to seek judicial redress of grievances against rejection of mercy plea.

The CJI-headed bench was peeved that the apex court's direction for prison reforms, given in Sunil Batra case more than 35 years ago, were yet to be implemented.

The bench said, "This court in Sunil Batra case had held that solitary confinement or single cell confinement prior to rejection of the mercy petition by the President is unconstitutional. Almost all the prison manuals of the states provide necessary rules governing the confinement of death convicts. These rules should not be interpreted to run counter to the above ruling and violate Article 21."

The court also found that condemned prisoners could seldom afford legal assistance and their grievances almost never reached the judiciary for redress.

"Since this court has held that Article 21 (right to life) rights inhere in a convict till his last breath, even after rejection of the mercy petition by the President, the convict can approach a writ court (high court or the Supreme Court) for commutation of the death sentence on the ground of supervening events, if available, and challenge the rejection of mercy petition and legal aid should be provided at all stages," the bench said.

"Accordingly, superintendents of jails are directed to intimate the rejection of mercy petitions to the nearest Legal Aid Centre apart from informing the convicts." It said.

Source: The Times of India, January 22, 2014

Indian Supreme Court commutes death penalty of 15 convicts due to delay, mental illness

Seat of Indian Supreme Court

ACHR welcomes SC commutation of 15 death sentences

The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) has welcomed the judgment of the Supreme Court commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment for 15 death-row convicts on the grounds of inordinate delay and mental illness.

"This makes India to move an inch towards being an abolitionist State and India must now consider abolition of death penalty once and for all," said Suhas Chakma, Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights.

The judgement will impact 414 death row convicts who remained in various prisons at the end of 2012.

The maximum number of death row convicts at the end of 2012 were in Uttar Pradesh with 106 followed by Karnataka (63); Maharashtra (51); Bihar (42); Delhi (27); Gujarat (19); Punjab (16); Kerala (14); Tamil Nadu (12); while Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh each had 10 death row convicts.

Out of 414 death row convicts, 13 were female. Maharashtra had maximum female death row convicts with 5 followed by Delhi (4); Punjab (2); and 1 each in Haryana and Karnataka

Source: truthdive.com, January 21, 2014

SC commutes death penalty of 15 convicts due to delay, mental illness

In a landmark and significant judgement, the Supreme Court on Tuesday commuted death penalty of 15 convicts on the grounds of inordinate delay and mental illness. The apex court said the death penalty can be commuted when there is an inordinate and inexplicable delay in deciding the mercy plea of the convicts.

While the death penalty of 13 convicts has been commuted to life on the ground of inordinate delay on part of President to decide their mercy pleas, 2 others were given life sentence after they became mentally ill after several years on death row. Over 20 death row convicts had approached Supreme Court seeking an authoritative ruling on the matter.

The Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court commuted death sentence of 4 aides of forest brigand Veerappan to life term on ground of delay in deciding their mercy plea by the government.

The 4 Veerappan gang members, convicted for killing 22 policemen in April 1993, are Simon, Gnana Prakash, Madaiah and Bilavendra. They were sentenced to death on January 29, 2004 while their mercy plea rejected was in February 13, 2013. The apex court had extended the stay on hanging for 6 months on February 20, 2013.

The court also ruled that a death row convict must be hanged within 14 days after dismissal of his/ her mercy petition.

Ruling that death row convicts and their families must be informed after their mercy plea is rejected by the President or the Governor, the apex court said, "Once the mercy plea has been rejected, it should be communicated in writing."

The apex court said schizophrenia, insanity and mental illness can be reasons for commuting death penalty and the convicts should be given adequate medical treatment and legal aid. The order also said that solitary confinement of a death row convict and other prisoners is unconstitutional.

The judgement may impact Devinder Singh Bhullar's case as well. Bhullar was sentenced to death by a trial court on August 25, 2001 for plotting terror attacks on Punjab Senior Superintendent of Police Sumedh Singh Saini in 1991 and Youth Congress leader MS Bitta in 1993, in which 9 people were killed.

The other death row convicts included Suresh, Ramji, Gurmeet Singh, Praveen Kumar, Sonia and her husband Sanjeev, Sundar Singh and Jafar Ali convicted in various cases.

While Suresh, Ramji, Gurmeet Singh and Jafar Ali are lodged in prisons in Uttar Pradesh, former Haryana MLA Ralu Ram Punia's daughter Sonia and her husband Sanjeev are jailed in Haryana. Praveen is in a Karnataka jail and Sundar Singh is an inmate of a prison in Uttaranchal.

Sonia and Sanjeev were awarded death penalty for killing eight members of her family, including her parents and 3 children of her brother in 2001.

Gurmeet Singh was convicted for killing 13 of his family members in 1986. Jafar Ali murdered his wife and 5 daughters. Suresh and Ramji killed 5 of their relatives.

The judgement may have implications in various cases, including the petitions filed by 3 death row convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case who have challenged the President's rejection of their mercy plea less than 3 years ago.

Welcoming the order former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee said, "This is a humane and correct judgement. I am in agreement with the judgement."

Human Rights lawyer Colin Gonsalves welcomed the judgement saying, "The order will have a positive effect on a number of cases. It gives me tremendous pleasure and a great deal of happiness to be able to save lives."

Source: IBN Live, January 21, 2014

Delay in Executing Death Penalty Against Right to Life: SC

Inordinate and unreasonable delay in execution of death sentence is violative of Right to Life, which is the most fundamental of all rights guaranteed by the Constitution, and entails as a ground for commutation of capital punishment to life term, the Supreme Court today held.

"...We are of the cogent view that undue, inordinate and unreasonable delay in execution of death sentence does certainly attribute to torture which indeed is in violation of Article 21 (Right to Life) and thereby entails as the ground for commutation of sentence," a bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Shiva Kirti Singh said.

"However, the nature of delay i.e. whether it is undue or unreasonable must be appreciated based on the facts of individual cases and no exhaustive guidelines can be framed in this regard," the bench added.

The apex court made the observations while commuting the death sentence of 15 death row convicts to life term on grounds of delay in deciding their mercy plea by the government or delay in execution or mental illness caused due to prolonged incarceration.

While reaching the conclusion, the bench said it was conscious of the fact that while Article 21 is the paramount principle on which rights of the convicts are based, it must be considered along with the rights of the victims or the deceased???s family as also societal consideration since these elements form part of the sentencing process as well.

The bench also said that, "Keeping a convict in suspense while consideration of his mercy petition by the President for many years is certainly an agony for him/her. It creates adverse physical conditions and psychological stresses on the convict under sentence of death.

"Indisputably, this court, while considering the rejection of the clemency petition by the President, under Article 32 read with Article 21 of the Constitution, cannot excuse the agonising delay caused to the convict only on the basis of the gravity of the crime."

Relying on various judgements, the bench said, "we hold that undue long delay in execution of sentence of death will entitle the condemned prisoner to approach this Court under Article 32 (Remedies for enforcement of rights).

"However, this court will only examine the circumstances surrounding the delay that has occurred and those that have ensued after sentence was finally confirmed by the judicial process."

It said the court cannot reopen the conclusion already reached but may consider the question of inordinate delay to decide whether the execution of sentence should be carried out or should be altered into imprisonment for life.

Source: Outlook India, January 21, 2014

Moratorium on death penalty: Human Rights Watch

The Indian government should declare a moratorium on death penalty, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday, after the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of 15 people on death row.

"The Supreme Court has taken a humane view on the issue of death penalty, and we welcome this judgment," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director of Human Rights Watch.

"Now it's time for the government to take some positive steps of its own," she said in a statement.

"The government should declare an official moratorium, commute all existing death sentences to life in prison, and work towards abolishing the death penalty once and for all.

"India should show its commitment to justice by joining the growing ranks of nations that have decided to abolish the death penalty.

"Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called for the end of capital punishment as it is an inherently irreversible, inhumane punishment," the statement said.

Source: IANS, January 21, 2014