India: 162 death penalties imposed by trial courts in 2018, highest in 2 decades

In 2018, 162 death penalty verdicts were pronounced by Sessions Courts, the highest since the turn of the millennium, according to a report.

The trend dipped slightly in 2014 and began climbing, reaching a record high in 2018.

The report, titled 'Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report 2018', also notes that the Supreme Court moved in the opposite direction, commuting 11 death sentences it heard in 2018 to life imprisonment.

Of the 114 death penalty cases handled by the High Courts that year, the majority (50%) were commuted. Here's a breakdown of the number of cases heard by all courts.

- The highest number of death sentences between 2015 and 2018 were given for cases involving both sexual violence and murder.

- The year 2018 saw the legislative expansion of the death penalty, introducing it as a possible punishment for rape of girls below 12 years of age. 9 persons were convicted under this new law in 2018. On August 1 2018, the Union Cabinet approved a bill providing death penalty or life imprisonment for crimes involving maritime piracy or piracy at sea, according to the report.

- However, the Supreme Court's concern about the death penalty was observed on 2 fronts: 1st, the commutation of 11 out of 12 death sentences to life imprisonment; and 2nd, Justice Kurian Joseph’s dissenting opinion in Chhannu Lal Verma v. State of Chhattisgarh, calling for the need to reconsider the death penalty as a punishment.

- A State-wise analysis shows that of the 426 persons on death row in the country (as on December 31, 2018) the highest number of convicts are from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

No. of death row convicts: Maharashtra 66, Tamil Nadu 14, Bihar 22, Uttar Pradesh 66, Madhya Pradesh 66, Karnataka 25

Of these, the status of 11 persons convicted under the Army Act is unknown.

Source: The Hindu, February 6, 2019

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