The death penalty almost invariably has it branches pruned before any abolition takes place, and such pruning often includes the prohibition on the awarding of the death sentence to juvenile offenders, to the mentally-challenged, and to the aged and infirm, as well as the prohibition on the execution of minors. Not all such ‘humanising’ of this inherently inhumane-by-definition punishment necessarily lead to a decrease in executions, however, despite their champions best intentions, as the post-1972 US moratorium and re-introduction of the death penalty will testify, accompanied as it was by the widespread introduction of lethal injection as the ‘new & more humane’ method of execution to be employed. States began sentencing and executing at a faster rate, with needles in hand. In India, we still use hanging (see our Delegate’s presentation to the recent World Congress on the Death Penalty in Paris, free to download). But in India we also have recently confirmed the death sentence on a juvenile offender (see the case of Israel Lakra). India still has a lot of ‘pruning’ left to do of the death sentence, but we will consider some of the areas in which such pruning might be expected to take place. The context for this section is best set by the article on Evolving Standards of Decency, in general terms.

Our major current area of concern, in an Indian context, is that of the death sentence for juvenile offenders, and that is the major area on which we will concentrate at present, with other areas for consideration to follow. We hope, with this consideration, to influence the death sentence handed-down to Israel Lakra, whose case is considered in detail here, and perhaps to help to save a life…


Stop Press

We have recently petitioned the Abolition of the Death Penalty Asian Network (ADPAN, of which we are a member) to become involved in the miscarriage of justice that will see the juvenile offender Israel Lakra executed.

There is a dynamic which one can observe, virtually the world over, in the continuing fight to abolish the death penalty. It is that there are evolutions in the use of the death penalty, with principally the judiciary attempting to make the administration and practice of the death penalty into a thing more ‘humane’, more ‘civilised’ and less ‘barbaric.’