371 Indians are on death row; only 4 have been executed in 13 years

Among the prisoners whose mercy petitions were rejected by the President of India, the median time spent in prison under trial was 16 years nine months

Current Affairs News: On April 21, 2018, the Indian government passed an ordinance allowing death penalty for the rape of children younger than 12 years. But is capital punishment an effective deterrent?

Human rights bodies and the United Nations have argued that the death sentence is inhuman and cruel and should be abolished. In India, the debate was revived in the wake of the ordinance.

Apart from the humanitarian argument, latest data also indicate that in India trial delays make the death sentence ineffective and result in protracted waits for the accused and their families.

There were 371 prisoners on the death row in India by end December 2017 with the oldest case from 1991, 27 years ago, according to the Death Penalty in India report published in January 2018.

The number of death sentences also fell. In 2017, 109 were sentenced to death by sessions courts across states, down 27% from 149 in 2016, said the report published by the Centre on the Death Penalty, an advocacy.

However, only four death-row prisoners were executed in the last 13 years. One had raped a minor and three were convicted of terrorism.

“Death row prisoners continue to face long delays in trials, appeals and thereafter in executive clemency,” the Law Commission of India 2015 report on the death penalty said. “During this time, the prisoner on death row suffers from extreme agony, anxiety and debilitating fear arising out of an imminent yet uncertain execution.”

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