2500 Death Penalties since the year 2000, only 4 Executions
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 30, 2020
The convicts in the gruesome Nirbhaya rape incident are to be executed on 01 February 2020. As per NCRB data, close to 2500 death penalties were awarded since 2000. However, only 4 persons were executed during this period.
Aftermore than seven years since the horrific Nirbhaya incident in the nationalcapital, the four convicts have been issued death warrants and are due to
be executed (hanged)on 01 February  2020. The imminentexecution of these convicts has once again triggered the debate around capitalpunishment as a deterrent.
Data from one of  NCRB’s annual reports, the ‘Prison Statistics India’ suggests that around four hundred prisoners in Indian jails, by end of 2018, were those who were awarded capital punishment.
186 sentenced to capital
punishment in 2018
In2018 alone, 186 persons were awarded capital punishment in the country. Ofthis, 26 were reported from Madhya Pradesh, 25 from Uttar Pradesh, andJharkhand & Maharashtra reported 20 each. These four states alone accountfor 49% of the total capital punishments awarded in 2018. While 5 states and Delhireported one each, nine states including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Sikkim,Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, and Jammu and Kashmirreported zero capital punishments in 2018.
Death sentence of 65
convicts commuted to life imprisonment with Bihar leading the way
Commutation of adeath sentence is done based on provisions under IPC & CrPC by theappropriate government. This is covered under Section 54 of the IPC and Section432, 433 and 433A of the CrPC. Moreover, the convict can also file a mercypetition, decision on which is the discretion of the President of India or therespective State Governor as per Articles 72 and 161 (exercise of clemency) ofthe Constitution.
However,the death sentence of 65 convicts was commuted to life imprisonment in 2018.Bihar reported 12 such cases (18.5%), Madhya Pradesh reported 11 (16.9%) andRajasthan reported 10 cases (15.4%). Together, these states accounted foralmost 51% such cases.
402 prisoners in India
are those awaiting death sentence and 19% of them are in Maharashtra
Inaddition to the 186 persons sentenced to death in 2018, there were 206 prisonersconvicted in previous years and awarded death penalty, thereby resulting in atotal of 402 prisoners serving capital punishment or death penalty. Theseconvicts accounted for 0.3% of the total convicts behind the bars in India in2018.
76(18.9%) out of 402 convicts sentenced with capital punishment were lodged inthe prisons in Maharashtra.  UttarPradesh (10.9%) accounted for the second highest number of such convictsfollowed by Madhya Pradesh (10%). Though as per the report, West Bengal had 37such convicts amounting to 9.2% of the national total, it should be noted thatdata furnished in 2017 was used in the report for West Bengal since 2018 datawas not submitted.
Thereport also makes it clear that no one was executed in 2018.
Of 2493 people awarded
capital punishment since 2000, only four have been executed till date
Sincethe beginning of this millennium, while a total of 2493 persons were awardedcapital punishment, only four executions have taken place in India-DhananjoyChatterjee in 2004, Ajmal Kasab in 2012, Afzal Guru in 2013 and Yakub Memon in2015. Four convicts in the Nirbhaya case are set to be hanged on 01 February2020 at Tihar Jail.
About 131 persons
sentenced to capital punishment every year
Onaverage, around 131 persons are sentenced to capital punishment by courts inIndia annually. Although the numbers are fluctuating, the years 2007 and 2018witnessed the maximum number of capital punishments in the last 19 years with186 cases each. The year 2014 had the least number of such cases.
Delhi accounted for 76% of capital punishment commuted
between 2005 to 2007
During the periodfrom 2005 to 2007, an unusual surge was observed in the commutation of deathsentence. There is no additional information on such a spike during theseyears.
In 2005, 74% or 919out of 1241 commutations were reported in Delhi. Further, 117 cases from UP (9.4%)and 132 cases from Jharkhand (10.6%) were also reported in the same year.
In the followingyear, 2006, Delhi accounted for 79% of the cases (806 out of 1020) and in 2007as well, Delhi accounted for 82.4% (726 out of 881).
Apart from thesethree years, the number of commutations in each year was either less than 100or slightly more than 100.
Huge
disparities among States
There are huge state-wisedisparities in the award of capital punishment. Five states alone account formore than half the number of cases reported across the country.
Bihar, Karnataka,Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are five states that havereported a substantially higher number of convictions resulting in capitalpunishment as compared to the remaining states in 2018.
23% of the Capital Punishments were awarded in Uttar
Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh hasbeen consistently reporting a large number of people being sentenced to death. Atotal of 285 death sentences out of 1,224 in the last ten years were reportedfrom Uttar Pradesh alone which is around 23% of the total number. Maharashtrareported 111 sentences, Madhya Pradesh reported 115 and Bihar reported 107 suchinstances. Together, the five states accounted for 55.3% of the cases (677 outof 1224) in the last 10 years.
More than half the Commutations reported from 5 States
Since 2009,  Bihar had reported the maximum number of commutationswith 137 out of total 775 (17.6%). Uttar Pradesh was next in line with 13.8%(107). Karnataka (53), Madhya Pradesh (87) and Maharashtra (56) togetherreported 196 cases, amounting to a quarter of the total.
NCRB data does not give the actual picture
NCRB reports thenumbers related to death penalty without stating the stage of the case. Thesefigures may be that of sentences given by trial court or that which has beenupheld by High Court or those cases in which the mercy petitions are pending.The number of convicts who may have filed mercy petitions is also unknown.Hence it may be useful if NCRB categorises these numbers based on the stage ofthe case.
Data shows how execution in India is very slow
As the datareveals, there is a huge gap between the number of people sentenced to deathand the number of executions that actually take place. This can be attributedto the long delay in trials, appeals and executive clemency.
In the Bachan
Singh Vs. State of Punjab case in 1982, theSupreme Court stated that capital punishment was to be given only in the‘rarest of rare’ cases. The constitutionality of death penalty was upheld bythe SC in this case. The doctrine was aimed to reduce ambiguity in the kind ofcases which called for death penalty. Both aggravating circumstances (whypunishment should be severe) and mitigating circumstances (why punishment hasto lessen) were to be considered.
In India, deathpenalty is generally awarded in crimes related to rape, murder, terrorism andatrocities towards Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The Law
Commission of India,in its report on death penalty in 2015, stated that there are 12 crimes underIPC and 22 other laws which prescribe death penalty.
The Commission had also recommended that the death penalty should be abolished in all cases except in terrorism-related crimes and waging war. However, no action has been taken in this respect till now despite global efforts to abolish the death penalty. The government amended the POCSO Act in 2019 so as to grant death penalty to those who indulge in aggravated sexual assault against children.
Featured Image: Death Penalties in India