Steering The Status Of Economically Vulnerable Prisoners Given Capital Punishment In India
Author: LawSphereX
Category: Criminal Law
Published:
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STEERING THE STATUS OF ECONOMICALLY
VULNERABLE PRISONERS GIVEN CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN INDIA Kritika Singh, Institute of Law, Nirma University The notion of capital punishment in India is adapted from the Benthamite conceptualization of capital sentence i. e. this particular punishment should only be imposed in the “rarest of the rare” cases. The motive behind imposing capital punishment is to maintain deterrence in society so that heinous crimes can be prevented from being committed. Still, is this motive enough for taking an individual’s life and violating his right to life? No empirical study has ever demonstrated a causal relationship between the death penalty and crime reduction. The act of physically eliminating the individual is not the appropriate solution.
There are many such loopholes identified in giving this punishment by many scholars and legal theorists, therefore, this article will delve into the loophole regarding the death penalty sentence given to economically vulnerable prisoners. Criticism of Capital Punishment Although capital punishment in India holds certain exceptions such as an offender under the age of eighteen years cannot be sentenced to death which ignited the society in the famous Nirbhaya case. People demanded stringent punishment for juveniles who committed heinous crimes which led to an amendment in the Juvenile Act where a juvenile can be treated as an adult when committed a heinous crime but a death sentence. There are many such instances when the theory of India’s punishment system is criticized and capital punishment is the most criticized of all.
The theoretical and executing theories of the death penalty practice have grave differences. For example, section 302 of the Indian Penal Code clearly states, “whoever commits murder shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine” but the execution is in the hands of the sitting judge conveying the order as he has the choice to either passing death penalty or sentencing life detainment to the offender. The section mentions “whoever” but according to the reports from the years 2000-2015, 74. 1% of prisoners who were sentenced to death were economically vulnerable which highlights the autonomy of the judges and the lack of opportunity this section of society has while representing themselves in the Court.
The reports also revealed that out of these prisoners, 62% of them had not even completed their secondary education which also underlines the lack of awareness and knowledge they had to deal with the court proceedings as the only recourse they were left with was to be dependent on the lawyer and his knowledge. Statistics and Reports Highlighting Economically Vulnerable as the “Targeted Class” in India The Indian punishment system works based on the reformative theory more than the retributive theory. Still, according to the interviews and reports, the prisoners sentenced to death have harsh conditions of incarceration and limited opportunities for meaningful human life. The life of being on death row is more devastating than the death itself for this particular section.
The study also noted that in 68% of the cases, the issue of reformation was not addressed and the death penalty was imposed without contemplating the chance of reformation in both high courts and trial courts. Supreme Court also laid down the state’s duty to lead pieces of evidence regarding the improbability of reform but there is no stern implementation for the said rule. When we talk about representing economically vulnerable prisoners, the first thought that pops up in mind is of legal aid lawyers. Still, due to the skepticism and distrust, prisoners from these backgrounds hire private lawyers which deteriorates their economic conditions further (many of them remain in debt to date).
The distrust is not based upon mere alleged statements but on concrete facts which were collected from the Supreme Court which states that 70% of the prisoners sentenced to death in the Supreme Court were represented by legal aid lawyers. One of the prisoners during an interview said that many of the prisoners on death row are either minorities or do not have enough money to represent themselves. For them, “Equality is an illusion”. Even if they committed heinous crimes, they have a right to seek natural justice but unfortunately, natural justice most often belongs to the upper strata of society. The latest figures can also defend this hypothesis from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and findings
65 percent. The majority of them are too impoverished to afford the bail money. In the trial
court, 70. 2% of prisoners sentenced to death said that they never interacted with lawyers about the case details and the same occurred in the High Court with 68. 4% of cases. To cut a long story short, the death penalty is for the one with the worst lawyer and not for the one with the worst crime! Discussions by the Human Rights Council In the Human Rights Council Resolutions (42nd session), Mr. Reynders (European Commissioner for Justice) emphasized the undeniable connection between poverty and the death penalty, highlighting that in addition to legal fees, every stage of the legal process involved expenses, such as acquiring or duplicating documents, arranging for witness appearances, or hiring unbiased specialists. In addition, those in the lowest socioeconomic bracket sometimes lacked social connections and were unaware of their legal rights or how to access the necessary support.
Although he did not specifically point out the Indian punishment system but was a voice for the rights of impoverished prisoners present in every part of the world. “If you are poor, the chances of being sentenced to death are immensely higher than if you are rich. There could be no greater indictment of the death penalty than the fact that in practice it is really a penalty reserved for people from lower socio-economic groups. This turns it into a class-based form of discrimination in most countries. ” The UN Rights experts produced this statement on October 10, 2017 (World Day Against the Death Penalty) as a consequence of the disproportionate representation of economically vulnerable classes on death row in most countries and urging the governments to implement better policies and law and order to curb the class-based capital punishments.
Questions Still Under Consideration Is imposing capital punishment on prisoners who cannot adequately represent themselves the prerequisite to justice? To provide justice to one, we cannot do injustice to another. Imposing capital punishment is not a portrayal of injustice to an individual but the high percentage of economically vulnerable prisoners presented on death row complaining about their inadequacy of representation is indeed a portrayal of injustice, which the Indian judiciary system should assess. States should prioritize addressing the underlying factors of crime, such as poverty, hardship, deprivation, and marginalization. Also, equal protection of the law is guaranteed in India as a fundamental right in the constitution but when there is such discrimination evident by the fact that 74.
1% of death convicts are economically vulnerable then the role of the judiciary becomes pertinent in addressing this bias. Still, instead the rich get richer and the poor get prison which is further augmented by white-collar crimes. This plight denotes a question, Is the rarest of the rare crimes in India to be born in a socioeconomic vulnerable class or people who committed a heinous crime?