13th Mar 2023 04:55 AM | B. Kannappan I.P.S.
The United Nations General Assembly has been insisting that the death penalty should be banned in court trials.
The United Nations General Assembly, which has 193 member countries, was held in December last year.
125 countries voted in favor and 37 countries voted against the debate held at the end of the debate on the subject of ‘banning the practice of imposing the death penalty on criminals’.
37 countries including India, USA, China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, North Korea and Vietnam voted against the decision to ban the death penalty.
Death penalty has been completely banned in 113 countries including Australia, South Africa, Britain, Germany, France and Italy. Of the 50 states in the United States, 23 states have banned the death penalty.
In the context of the United Nations General Assembly continuing to take initiatives against the death penalty, the National Law University located in New Delhi conducted a study on the death penalty awarded by the courts in the trial of criminal cases in India.
In 2022, the trial courts awarded the death penalty to 165 criminals, a higher number of criminals were sentenced to death in 2022 than in the last twenty years, and the number of criminals sentenced to death has doubled in the last two years, a study by the National Law University has pointed out.
According to the study, 51% of the convicts sentenced to death in India last year were involved in violent cases involving sexual violence, with Gujarat leading the list of states with the highest number of death sentences, followed by Uttar Pradesh.
The study also found that 539 convicts sentenced to death in India have their sentences pending.
An expert expresses hope that the increasing death penalty in our country will reduce the number of violent incidents. At the same time, since the death penalty is the ultimate injustice against human rights, the demand to ban the death penalty is also continuously emphasized in our country.
European countries are proof that the ban on death penalty will lead to an increase in violent crimes, disruption of peace and insecurity in the country.
In the continent of Europe, which includes fifty countries, the death penalty is prohibited in all but one country. Thus, the question arises whether there is an insecurity in European countries.
The ‘Economics and Peace Institute’, headquartered in Sydney, Australia, conducts annual research on the countries of the world and publishes the World Peace Index. Accordingly, in the ranking list of the 20 safest countries in the world in 2022, 14 countries are located in the European continent. At the same time, India has been ranked 135th in the World Peace Index.
Why are European countries that have banned the death penalty safe and India, where the death penalty is practiced, is far behind in the peace and security rankings?
It can be seen that the criminal justice system in India is becoming weak. While the number of unregistered crimes is significant, the time it takes to complete the trial of the registered criminal cases and the court verdict is shocking.
In 2020, a black man named George Floyd, who was arrested by American police officers for the crime of using fake dollars in the United States, died. Subsequently, in the murder case registered against the American police officers, the investigation and the court hearing were completed in 11 months and the police officer who faced the crime of murder was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison.
At the same time, in 2010, a police assistant inspector who was traveling on a motorcycle for work in Tirunelveli district was killed by mercenaries by throwing country-made bombs. Even after 13 years of the murder, the murder case against the accused who killed the assistant inspector remains pending in court.
Like this case, countless brutal cases are pending in various courts without the outcome of the court hearing, which is the reason for the continuous occurrence of crimes. In particular, violent cases of murder, attempted murder, robbery against those who are classified as ‘reddies’ in police stations and are under surveillance are pending in court.
The National Crime Archives conducts an annual study of cases that end in conviction. According to the study, in 2021, 16.3% of murder cases, 5.7% of attempted murder cases, 7.4% of robbery cases and 3% of robbery cases resulted in convictions in 2021.
The fact that a very small number of violent cases lead to convictions at the end of court proceedings and the fact that any crime can escape from court punishment are important reasons for the increase in crime.
A study conducted by the National Law University revealed that 24.5 percent of the convicts receiving death sentence in India belong to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and economically backward criminals are sentenced to death in large numbers.
This shows that many criminals with wealth and influence escape prosecution without punishment, and those who are too dependent on the economy are unable to fully resist the investigation and subsequent court proceedings and are convicted.
The statistics are staggering.
In the past, there was a feeling in our society that family honor would be disturbed if one was arrested in a criminal case and went to jail. Due to this, many people hesitated to engage in criminal activity. Over time, people have started resisting arrest and imprisonment easily.
There is a situation in which today’s prison administration and juvenile correctional schools are unable to create an environment in which criminals who are arrested in criminal cases and those who are convicted in court and imprisoned in a court of law, understand their crimes, change their minds and do not engage in criminal activities again. Reformation of criminals has been neglected in our country.
The use of alcohol and drugs plays an important role in the increasing incidence of violent crimes in our country. The study reveals that a little more than 40 percent of the criminals involved in crimes like murder, robbery and sexual assault were under the influence of alcohol and drugs when they committed the crime. Alcohol and drugs are the main cause of increasing domestic violence.
India’s position on the World Peace Index will rise if proper studies are done to identify the causes of increasing crime incidents and measures to be taken to counter them.
Author:
Police Home Officer (Retd.).