Should Capital Punishment be Abolished?

Introduction
The crimes that warrant a death sentence to a convict are known as capital crimes or
capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin word capitalis, which
means regarding the head.
Capital punishment in India is handed out in the rarest of the rare cases, like to a
person guilty of heinous crimes particularly that of rape or murder and the sentence is
executed by hanging the accused by the neck till the person is dead. In some countries
this could be substituted by the electrical chair or shooting.
Worldwide about 55 countries actively practice capital punishment, while, 140 countries
have abolished it for most crimes. 19 states in the U.S. and the country of Canada have
abolished the death penalty. Nearly all countries in the world prohibit the execution of
individuals who were under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes.
Last year, Indian courts sentenced 64 people to death, making the country one of the
top 10 out of 55 where capital punishment still exists.
India had imposed an unofficial moratorium on executions, which ended in November
2012 with the hanging of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman in the
2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Two months later, Mohammad Afzal Guru, convicted in a
deadly 2001 attack on India's Parliament complex, was also hanged. Both executions
were done secretly, without any public notice.
United Nations General Assembly has adopted, in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014
non-binding resolutions calling for a global moratorium on executions with a view to
eventual abolition. However, India along with three other most populous nations of the
world, i.e. China, United States and Indonesia voted against it and continue to apply
death penalty.
Reasons Against Capital Punishment
The fallacy that crueller punishments deter crime doesnt take into account that there
are complex social and economic factors that drive crime rates. Besides, a criminal
does not often plan on getting caught or think through all the consequences of their
actions.

Criminal justice systems the world over have had great success of reform without the
threat of death, and often due to programmes that focus on offender rehabilitation. In
fact ever since Canada stopped executing, the murder rate has dropped by 44 per cent
through effective police work and rehabilitation.
Ironically, while awarding the death penalty, the time spent languishing in jail while on
death row is never acknowledged. A person who has done 20-25 years in jail while the
case was being heard has already suffered the trauma and a senseless deprivation of
life.
India has a highly effective criminal justice system, however, it does not mean that it is
absolutely infallible, errors can and do occur. We can't give back a life once it is taken,
and hence, a cautious approach should be preferred to even the slightest possibility of
taking an innocent person's life.
The desire for revenge is one of the lowest human emotions, perhaps sometimes
understandable, but not really a rational response to a critical situation. To kill the
person who has killed someone close to you is simply to continue the cycle of violence
which ultimately destroys the avenger as well as the offender. On the contrary, the
extended legal process prior to executions can prolong the agony experienced by the
victims' families.
National Law University in New Delhi has researched that, since the year 2000, more
than 1,600 people have been sentenced to death. A joint study conducted by the
university and the Law Commission also found that three-fourths of prisoners on death
row are poor people who cannot afford to hire lawyers who can argue their case and
often go without legal representation.
Lastly, capital punishment is not approved by any religion.
Reasons to Support Capital Punishment
Each criminal should get what their crime deserves and in the case of a murderer what
their crime deserves is death.
Punishments which are swift and sure are the best deterrent. The threat of the death
penalty may deter some murderers who otherwise might not have been deterred.
The offender may no longer be a danger to the public, but a criminal mind would remain
a danger to prison staff and other inmates. Execution would remove that danger.
Besides, there have been cases of criminals repeating their crime on parole.

The death penalty provides some sought of closure and peace to the victims' families.
The high cost of prolonged period in custody for highly sensitive cases like that of Ajmal
Kasab, is at the expense of many people who die each year due to hunger and poverty.
Hence, an early death sentence will reduce the expenditure to keep the criminal alive
for his entire life, if given imprisonment for life.
In case of a possible death sentence, the prisoner has the strongest possible incentive
to try to get their sentence reduced, even to life imprisonment, by helping the
investigating authorities and the police. Hence, fear of capital punishments serves to
assist the authorities to obtain maximum information from the prisoner, e.g. Yakub
Memon exposed the role of ISI, Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger Memon and others in the 1993
Bombay blasts.
Execution of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon
Yakub Memon, jailed for his supporting role in the 1993 Mumbai bombings that killed
257 people, had made many mercy appeals which were turned down and finally on 30
July 2015, on his birthday, he was hung at Central Jail Nagpur.
Memon, an accountant by profession, was convicted of providing financial and logistical
support in the series of bombings that shook India's business and entertainment hub in
1993.
Those appealing for a commutation highlighted the time he has already spent in jail, that
the main conspirators of the terror attacks on Mumbai were living freely in Pakistan and
Dubai and that the death sentences of convicts in other terror-related cases had been
commuted.
There were divergent views on the hanging of Yakub, 300 odd prominent citizens,
including at least eight retired judges of the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court
had urged India's President to commute Memon's sentence to life in prison, reflecting
what appears to be growing uneasiness in India with the death penalty.
At the bottom of the debate was the issue that Yakub had become an approver, as he
had brought all the incriminating evidence from Karachi to call the ISI bluff. Yet some of
the most ardent supporters of capital punishment, including the leaders of the ruling
nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party felt that he deserved the death penalty for supporting
such a heinous crime.

Lastly, the hanging of Yakub Memon has perhaps brought some peace and closure to
the victims of the 1993 blasts and has restored the confidence of the people in the
Indian criminal justice system.