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Commutation of Rajiv Gandhi Killers’ death sentence, an encouraging decision: Amnesty International India
February 18, 2014 | By Sikh Siyasat Bureau
New Delhi, India (February 18, 2014): Today’s Supreme Court ruling to commute death sentences of three death row prisoners, Perarivalan, Murugan and Santhan, is a very encouraging decision — especially in light of the landmark ruling in January 2014 to commute 15 death sentences in India.
After the historic verdict in January in which the Supreme Court held that ‘inordinate and inexplicable delays’ in carrying out executions were grounds to reduce penalties awarded to prisoners, today’s decision to spare the lives of these 3 prisoners is a welcome judgement that shows the judiciary’s willingness to uphold standards it set down for the treatment of prisoners on death row.
Perarivalan, Murugan and Santhan have spent more that 20 years in prison. They were sentenced to death in January 1998 by a special court set up under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act (TADA) of involvement in the killing of India’s former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and 15 other people in May 1991. In May 1999, the Supreme Court acquitted them of chdsarges under the TADA, but upheld their convictions on other charges including murder, and confirmed their death sentences. I n 2000 they filed a mercy petition filed with President. Their mercy petitions were rejected after 11 years and their hangings were stayed in September 2011.
The presiding judge in the three-judge bench of the Supreme Court that confirmed the death sentences in 1998, told journalists in February 2013 that the judgement was ‘constitutionally incorrect’. He also said that since the convicted prisoners had already spent over two decades in custody, a decision to execute them would amount to giving ‘two punishments for the same crime’, which would violate the Constitution of India.
” The positive rulings of commutations of January 2014 and those of today, offer context and impetus for India to move towards a direction of a society that can be free of the death penalty”, said Divya Iyer, Senior Researcher, Amnesty International India. “India must now do away with the death penalty — a cruel, inconsistent and irreversible form of punishment that has no proven deterrent effect on crime”, she added.
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Related Topics: Amnesty International, Death Penalty
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