India: Victim impact statements can achieve what death penalty can’t

India’s criminal justice system needs to look at victim impact statements in the US to help victims achieve closure.

Perhaps you have figured out by now that little girls don’t stay little forever. They grow into strong women that return to destroy your world,” said a woman to celebrity gymnastics coach Larry Nassar in the US earlier this year.

Nassar had already been convicted of sexually assaulting girls he was training. But before the court could decide how many years he would spend in jail, it gave his 156 victims a chance to address him in court.

One victim said about the experience, “I got up there and I looked him in the eye, I just knew that I had a lot to say and that whatever happened, I was going to make him look at me and make him listen. It felt like I was back in control… He did look at me. In fact, he cried during my statement.”

‘Victim impact statements’ are a part of the criminal justice system in the US. A victim can send it in writing or read it out in court. There was, for instance, a 23-year-old’s victim impact statement at Stanford that went viral.

Justice must not only be done, but seem to be done. Victim impact statements help with the part about making justice seem to be done. That is useful not just for victims, but also for society, helping assert among the public what is right and what is wrong, reminding people of the emotional trauma heinous crimes cause.

Public debate on justice for heinous crimes in India has two sides. One demands death penalty, because nothing less would be justice. The other side says revenge is not justice. But what is justice?

Conviction is justice

President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the mercy petition of a man who killed a family of seven in Bihar in 2006. The government has amended the law to make child rape punishable by death, and the Supreme Court will soon decide if Nirbhaya’s murderers and rapists will be hanged.

Some say death penalty is necessary for the victims to be able to move on, but that is not the case. The hanging of a criminal will not make a family grieve any less about the loss of their loved one.

Victims need closure, and the starting point of closure is conviction itself.

Asumal Sirumalani Harpalani alias Sant Shri Asaram Ji Bapu was recently convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl at his ashram in Jodhpur in 2013.

The girl, now 21, and her family say they were able to get sound sleep for the first time only when he was convicted. “This episode hampered her studies which she can start once again… we will want her to choose her field and will help her get as much education as she wants,” her father said.

Asaram was in jail for all of the four and a half years. His being in jail was not justice. Justice was when a court of law said, yes, he was guilty of a crime.

In all the debate around punishment, we forget that punishment is given only after conviction. After ruling the accused guilty, courts hold another hearing about punishment.

Punishment matters, but conviction itself is important to victims. It is the moment of truth when the victim feels vindicated, all the slander and lies hurled at her are rejected by an objective authority.

When a guilty party gets away without punishment, it is a grave injustice. When Mayaben Kodnani is acquitted in the 2002 case through legal procedure, it won’t be solace to the families of the dead that she spent many years in jail. A court of law said it couldn’t be sure if she did incite violence. Then who did? That’s injustice. The act of conviction achieves half the purpose of justice.

In 2016, only 1 in 4 rape cases ended in conviction. The conviction rate used to be better. When trials go on for years, they compound the trauma for victims. The knowledge that even after putting up with an endless legal process the accused may go scot free is one of the reasons why most women do not report sexual crimes.

Public discourse on heinous crimes like rape and murder needs to focus more on conviction. When the accused is not even convicted, what’s the use of having strong punishment written down in the statute books?

Moving on is justice

It took a public movement to bring Manu Sharma to justice for shooting Jessica Lall dead just because she refused to serve him a drink. After he’s spent 15 years in jail, Jessica’s sister Sabrina Lall says she has no objection to his release. “It will be like a catharsis to forgive and move on. I also need to get on with my life,” she added.

If a criminal is not convicted, victims and their families may never be able to move on. Victims and their families are able to move on if they feel that a wrong has been called a wrong and righted with punishment. That’s why that punishment need not be death penalty. After many years have passed, victims and their families may be able to move on. That is why Sabrina Lall feels the chapter of her sister’s death needs to be closed with a reformed Manu Sharma let out of jail. She doesn’t want to hear his name again.

Such closure for victims and their families takes years. Death penalty can’t achieve that. What can, is speedier justice, higher conviction rates and victim impact statements.

Source: The Print, Shivam Vij, May 30, 2018

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Florida executes Michael Tanzi

Florida on Tuesday executed a death row inmate described by one local detective as a "fledgling serial killer" for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee. Florida executed Michael Tanzi on Tuesday, 25 years after the murder of beloved Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta, who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break in 2000. Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET.

South Carolina | Man who ambushed off-duty cop to face firing squad in second execution of its kind

Mikal Mahdi, 48, who was found guilty of killing an off-duty police officer and a convenience store worker, is the second inmate scheduled to executed by South Carolina's new firing squad A murderer who ambushed and shot an off duty police officer eight times before burning his body in a killing spree is set to become the second person to die by firing squad. South Carolina's highest court has rejected the last major appeal from Mikal Mahdi, 41, who is to be put to death with three bullets to the heart at 6pm on April 11 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Mahdi's lawyers said his original lawyers put on a shallow case trying to spare his life that didn't call on relatives, teachers or people who knew him and ignored the impact of weeks spent in solitary confinement in prison as a teen.

Afghanistan | Four men publicly executed by Taliban with relatives of victims shooting them 'six or seven times' at sport stadium

Four men have been publicly executed by the Taliban, with relatives of their victims shooting them several times in front of spectators at a sport stadium. Two men were shot around six to seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Afghanistan's Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city. The men had been 'sentenced to retaliatory punishment' for shooting other men, after their cases were 'examined very precisely and repeatedly', the statement said. 'The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace but they refused.'

South Carolina executes Mikal Mahdi

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later.

USA | Why the firing squad may be making a comeback

South Carolina plans to execute Mikal Mahdi on Friday for the murder of a police officer, draping a hood over his head and firing three bullets into his heart. The choice to die by firing squad – rather than lethal injection or the electric chair – was Mahdi’s own, his attorney said last month: “Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils.” If it proceeds, Mahdi’s execution would be the latest in a recent string of events that have put the spotlight on the firing squad as a handful of US death penalty states explore alternatives to lethal injection, by far the nation’s dominant execution method.

I spent 16 years in solitary in South Carolina. This is what it did to me. | Opinion

South Carolinian Randy Poindexter writes about the effects 16 years of solitary confinement had on him ahead of South Carolina’s planned execution of Mikal Mahdi , who spent months in solitary as a young man. For 16 years, I lived in a concrete cell. Twenty-three hours a day, every day, for more than 3,000 days, South Carolina kept me in solitary confinement. I was a young man before I was sent to solitary — angry, untreated and unwell. I made mistakes. But I wasn’t sentenced to madness. That’s what solitary did to me. My mental health worsened with each passing day. At first, paranoia and depression set in. Then, hallucinations and self-mutilation. I talked to people who weren’t there. I cut myself to feel something besides despair. I could do nothing as four of my friends and fellow prisoners took their own lives rather than endure another day of torturous isolation.

Louisiana | Lawyers of Jessie Hoffman speak about their final moments before execution

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.

Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away. The curtain shrieked as it was yanked open to reveal a 67-year-old man tied to a chair. His arms were pulled uncomfortably behind his back. The red bull’s-eye target on his chest rose and fell as he desperately attempted to still his breathing. The man, Brad Sigmon, smiled at his attorney, Bo King, seated in the front row before guards placed a black bag over his head. King said Sigmon appeared to be trying his best to put on a brave face for those who had come to bear witness.

Execution date set for prisoner transferred to Oklahoma to face death penalty

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.

Arizona | The cruelty of isolation: There’s nothing ‘humane’ about how we treat the condemned

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog