PHILOSOPHY OF DEATH SENTENCE.

BY K P PASWAN.

Philosophy of death penalty for dreaded criminals needs serious debate as the situations in 21st century is totally different from the past. Criminals all over the world are enjoying the political patronage and support from human rights bodies. It is a piquant situation as abolition or retaining of death penalty depends upon the politicians in power who are thriving because of support of criminals of different background. 

Many countries in the world have abolished capital sentence. Criminals on being convicted are awarded life long prison, with no prospect of parole. On the contrary many countries including US, Russia, India and most of the Islamic countries prefer death sentence for serious crimes like murder and rape with murder. In India capital punishment is awarded in rare of rarest cases With or without capital sentence, there is no slow down of crimes and fact of the matter is that criminals are committing murder as  they treat these acts of crimes as their fundamental right. They don’t care for laws and severe punishment. If the convicted criminal is rich, he can avoid death sentence and even life imprisonment by hiring expensive lawyers.

In India, more than 70% of prisoners awaiting gallows are Dalits. There is no doubt that they committed murder and judiciary rightly awarded capital punishment, they are awaiting their turn to see the hanging rope. However, there is a question. If an expensive lawyer had been defending them, it would have as well for him to have noticed the particulars of the charges, the extreme poverty of his client, and the incidence of game laws. None of the Dalits awaiting gallows is either a terrorist or hardened criminal. Most of the convicted Dalits killed their oppressors and these Dalits were defended by Govt appointed lawyers as hiring expensive lawyers was beyond their reach..

AGAINST CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. There are certain groups of people who oppose death penalty on the plea that state has no right to take the life of a convicted person. There is no logic to support this plea. On the same analogy it can safely be pleaded that state has no right to support the lives of criminals who indulge in brutal murder of innocent people. The state is here to maintain laws and order and there are criminals who defy these laws and commit serious crimes for which criminals are punished as per the nature of crime.

 Every murder does not call for death punishment. A famous case is being cited to elaborate the point.

In the decade of 1950 in India, there was a famous trial of an Indian Navy Commander, by the name of K Nanawati. This case drew the attention of the first prime minister of India. Public attention was focused on the trial for several reasons, the origins and unorthodox morality of the commander who was married to a beautiful British woman named Sylvia. He spent most of his time in the sea and taking advantage of prolonged absence of Navy Officer, one Mr Bhagwan Dass Pahuja developed intimacy with the woman. Mr Pahuja was a wealthy person and a womanizer. Nanawati knew the affairs but remained faithful to his wife. When the navy Officer visited his home, he noticed changed behavior of his wife and asked the reasons, his wife accepted her intimacy with Mr Pahuja. Nanawati took his service revolver and went straight to the home of Mr Pahuja. As per records, in fact and in real sense there was no eyewitness. the Navy Commander asked the businessman to marry Sylvia, but Pahuja humiliated the Navy Officer by telling that he had many girlfriends and he was not going to marry all or any one of them.  Heated exchanges followed, the Commander lost his anger, fired several rounds, killing the man and surrendered to local police station on his own and accepted his crime. Later on, he was kept in the custody of navy. The case was widely published all over the world. At that time Jury system of Jurisprudence prevailed. Nanawati was acquitted but the prosecution preferred an appeal which was allowed, but his life was spared, The Governor exercised his power of pardon and Nanawati left for Canada, where he died in obscurity.

 Mr Nanawati was a self-respected man He was devastated by his defense lawyer. The defense failed to present a much more sympathetic view of a Navy Commander crazy with love and wild with unreasoning jealousy who had fired without knowing what he did, Blind and muddled humanity had been even more blind and muddled than usual and every one concerned had paid a terrible price for the sin of lack of intelligence. The Nanawati case is a glaring example.

HISTORY. Death sentence was widely awarded in ancient time in Rome and other contemporary civilized countries. We find merciless and brutal methods of execution, for ordinary crimes and sometimes innocent people were executed. King Henry1V of UK executed his queen Ann Bolen for not giving birth of a male hair apparent. In France King Luis Xiv was executed by revolutionaries, while the supreme leader of French revolution Robespierre was sentenced to death for his own crimes. In every country death sentence prevailed till the end of second world war.

MASS MURDER AND CAPITAL SENTENCE. Mass murder of people is equated with serious crimes against humanity and in such cases criminals must not be given opportunity to terrorize the civilized society. Hitler committed genocide of Jews and The Ottoman Sultans indulged in mass killing of Armenians Christians. Murder of dissidents in African and Latin countries is regular feature. Persons responsible for mass killing of people are tried in a court of laws and the accused are punished as per laws and the verdict depends upon the arguments of defense and prosecution

  Capital punishment means a hardened criminal must pay for his life for the crimes he committed. These crimes may be drug related, charges of sedition and in contemporary world, indulging in terrorist activities. In India, Dalits were awarded death sentence in ancient India if the Dalits knowingly or unknowingly touched a Brahmins or upper castes. 

With spread of education and introduction of sophisticated methods of investigating serious crimes, we find sudden emergence of Human Rights Organizations in  every country of the world. It was rightly realized that law enforcement officers often beat suspects to admit crimes which may or may not have been committed by persons. We find global outrage against custodial death and demand for abolition of capital punishment by intellectuals and supporters of human rights.

 E.U AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. Every member state of EU has abolished death sentence. There are several reasons behind these decisions. These countries are highly civilized and standard of living of common people is very high which create jealousy among underdeveloped countries. These are small countries and for law enforcement agencies, it is not hard to maintain peace and harmony in society. Austria is a small but industrialized country in the EU, in which there was no report of serious crimes until  Indians settled there and all types of crimes emerged.  In industrialized nations economic offenses are very common, but these are offenses for which death or even harsh punishment is not warranted.

President E Macron of France has taken wove to end death penalty in entire Europe. Nearly one year ago a Catholic priest in France was offering prayer,  when he was beheaded by Islamist zealot. The killer was neutralized, but there was outcry by human rights groups for brutal killing of the killer of the priest. 

 Germany has emerged as the epicenter of terror activities and in future terrorists in the guise of refugees will pose greater danger to entire Europe than Russia.  Germany has turned itself  into a prosperous Arabian state by permitting refugees from war torn Central Asia to settle in Germany. Majority of these refugees are radicals Muslims. Mass or sporadic killing of innocent  people by radicals is not ruled out. In absence of capital punishment these religious zealots are likely to mutate creating social and political upheaval in Europe.

 Real identity of a few hardened criminals is shrouded in mystery. Identity of Jack the Ripper and Zodiac killer was not known. There are speculations about their identities, but not supported by clinching evidences.

Alternatives. In E.U and for that matter every country in this world, police has detected ways and means to deal with these criminals. Criminals  are killed in police encounter,  these criminals are not allowed to face trial. Most of the drug lords and religious  zealots and their henchmen are being killed every other day in all parts of the globe. These killings are known as neutralizing the hardened criminals and is a factor for abolishing death punishment. Entire EU is facing serious threats from religious based terrorism. Nabbing these faithful soldiers of an unproven God is expensive affair. Alternative is to award these criminals long term imprisonment which means mental and physical torture for the rest of life. 

Most of the religious based terrorists prefer to die in police encounter to attain the status of martyrs and reach paradise.

 Intellectuals and human rights body prefer long term imprisonment, instead of death sentence  for hardened criminals. There are hundreds of drug lords who are enjoying good life in the prison. Reasons, they have rich friends outside the jail who are taking advantage of certain sections and provisions of laws, this is noticed in prisons in US. All over the world there are criminals who are engaged in  crimes from behind the bar. In a way hardened criminal are being supported by intellectuals even if it means suffering of civilized persons.  In the Middle East and in certain parts of Africa, capital punishment does not carry much weight, criminals irrespective of gravity of crimes are neutralized by police and army. Intellectuals and human rights bodies are ignored. In these countries very, few criminals are allowed to face judicial scrutiny as these judicial proceedings prevent clever lawyers to defend their clients.

Situations in India is not different. In the name of personal liberty and democratic principles, defense lawyers present their cases to court, citing violations of fundamental rights of the criminals. Sometimes these lawyers representing criminals create hilarious scenes. Politicians all over the world cannot survive without help of criminals, but in India , some of the politicians in power, themselves commit crimes like raping and murdering their political opponents. In recent months a good number of hardened criminals were neutralized in police encounter. These  criminals were killed as politicians feared their own exposure. Situation has so much worsened in India that criminals no longer fear police and in big cities rape with murder and gangs war are common. Modernization of police force with ultramodern gadgets to detect and investigate a heinous crime is challenging problem.

What is more shocking that in India, newly wed brides are burnt alive for not bringing sufficient dowry and in majority of cases culprits are acquitted by judiciary

In India, there is another type of violence related to social anarchy. There are violent groups of people, who call themselves as followers of Mao and Lenin. These two dictators were known for merciless killing of their dissidents to achieve their political aims. These groups of people are known as Naxalites, they are active in parts of India known for difficult terrains and forests. They kill affluent people and local officials. Their evolution is difficult to understand as most of the so called Naxals are Dalits and poor people. Initially it was concluded that extreme poverty and suppression by local money lenders was responsible for the birth of these violent organizations, but with industrial development, marked improvements are noticed in the lives of Dalits and Tribal and merciless killing of innocent people by these misguided followers of Mao/Lenin cannot be justified. Surprisingly some of the Naxals carrying heavy awards on their heads surrender to local authorities and saved themselves from gallows.

FINAL THOUGHT. Survival of a civilized society is at stake. Criminals are adopting modern technology to commit crimes and human right bodies are seen every where to make passionate appeal for the lives of criminals. They are in the peculiar habits of expressing sympathy for the victims. This is unfortunate and cast dark shadow on the aims of such organizations. Long term imprisonment means torture and in such cases death penalty is preferable.