FEATURED POST

Japan | Hakamada found religion, but then felt under attack by ‘the devil’

Published
Image
Editor's note: This is the last in a four-part series on letters that Iwao Hakamada wrote while on death row. About a decade after cursing God, Iwao Hakamada was baptized Catholic at the Tokyo Detention House on Dec. 24, 1984. “Since I have been given the Christian name Paul, I am keenly feeling that I should be aware of the greatness of Paul.” (June 1985)

India: Of death penalty and a brutal society

Published
India was one of the few countries that resumed executions in 2012. India's stand on the death penalty issue is worrying since it necessarily means we are an intolerant and brutal society.

If one were to go just by the sheer numbers documented in the annual Amnesty International report on death penalty that was released last week, prima facie it would seem there is not much to write about India. Prima facie, of course.

Amnesty is right in noting that there has been overall progress in the global trend towards ending the death penalty (PDF file). This is where India comes in, because the country has bucked the trend. India not only carried out its first execution since 2004, but also awarded death sentences in 78 cases. More than 400 individuals remained on death row till the end of 2012.

There are far too many points in favour of the argument why the death penalty needs to go, but the concerns today lie elsewhere.

First, the very fact that India has shown scant regard for global trends is a cause for distress. India, after all, has repeatedly voted in the United Nations General Assembly against a moratorium on executions. And this has had little to do with which party has been ruling at the Centre. When the Executive and the Legislative don’t lead the way, the country can hardly progress.

Second, we live in times where it’s all about a collective blood lust. A barbaric act brings out the bestial best in people. Outrages are often sanguinary in nature. So, it seems that in order to tackle criminals, we must behave in as much a gruesome manner as criminals do. It seems that in order to prove that killing is bad, we need to kill another person to drive home the point. Little wonder that we live in such a dehumanised society. In other words, it’s one that apparently attains salvation through killings. Justice takes a backseat, vengeful emotions run riot.


Source: DNA, Subir Ghosh, April 14, 2013
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

Published
Image
Since the beginning of 2024 until the end of April, the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 55 individuals. This figure constitutes a 189% increase compared to the executions in the first third of 2023, which witnessed 19 executions. The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights views these numbers as a clear indication of the Saudi government's continued approach towards executing and issuing death sentences, and that the promises made in recent years have become elusive.
Read more

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

Published
Image
The following document is a written record of convicted killer Hamida Djandoubi's last moments before he was guillotined in a Marseilles prison on September 10, 1977. This written record -- dated September 9 -- was written by a judge appointed to witness the execution. Djandoubi's execution was the last execution carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. Then-President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who had voiced his "loathing for the death penalty" before he was elected to office, flatly turned down Djandoubi's appeal for clemency and chose to let "Justice run its course", as he did on two previous instances ( Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977). Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was executed in Marseilles' Baumettes prison in September 1977. The following text was writ
Read more

Cruel and Unusual: Documentary explores epicenter of Texas’ prison system

Published
Image
Every few years, from childhood until my late teens, my granddad would take me along with him to the small Texas town where he grew up—Normangee, population 522—to visit old relatives and even older graves. The drive took us up I-45, beyond the Houston sprawl, past pine forests, and eventually through Huntsville, epicenter of the state prison system. One of the city’s seven prisons was just off the interstate, and as we passed by I’d stare at the guard towers and barbed wire before turning my attention across the street to the Texas Prison Museum, which had its own mock guard towers in the parking lot. (“Prison” and “museum” were words that never seemed to go together.) Later, I learned that the museum’s central attraction was the wooden electric chair the state used for executions until 1964.
Read more

Saudi authorities agree to postpone execution of Kenyan national

Published
Image
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 13 – Saudi Arabia has acceded to Kenya’s request to postpone the execution of Stephen Munyakho that was set for Wednesday to allow for further negotiations between all parties. According to Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’Oei, Kenya will be engaging stakeholders in Nairobi and Riyadh, including religious leaders, to agree on the next urgent steps.
Read more

Tennessee | New law allows death penalty for child rape

Published
Image
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has approved legislation allowing the death penalty in child rape convictions, a change the Republican-controlled Statehouse championed amid concerns that the U.S. Supreme Court has banned capital punishment in such cases. Lee, a Republican, quietly signed off on the legislation last week without issuing a statement.
Read more