Death penalty in India

·         On May 2, 2008 in a report titled  "The Lethal Lottery - Death Penalty in India", Amnesty International and People’s Union for Civil Liberties (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry) suggested  that death penalty in India has been "arbitrary, imprecise and abusive means of dealing with crime and criminals"

·         The report compiles and critically analyses Supreme Court judgments in death penalty cases between 1950-2006

·         The 224-page report suggests implementation of the Law Commission's recommendation that a bench of five judges decide any capital case in the Supreme Court.

·         It has recommended that the number of executions in the country and people presently on death row be made public

·         It states that in a large number of cases whether an accused is sentenced to death or not is dependent on a range of variables - from the competence of the legal representation, especially at the trial court stage, to the interest of the state in that case and personal views of the judges sitting on the various benches hearing the case.

·         It also stresses on the requirement of unanimity of judges as a procedural safeguard in awarding death penalty.

T·         Amnesty International has pointed out that almost 135 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice and India is among the 62 countries that still maintain the death penalty in both law and practice.

·         The last execution in India, first since first since 1995, was held in August 2004 when Dhananjoy Chatterjee, convicted of raping and murdering a schoolgirl in 1990, was hanged to death.

·         About 40 mercy petitions are said to be pending before the president.