By F. M. Britto

Parsahi (Bana), March 24, 2020: It was very motherly of Asha Devi to express happiness when the four convicts, who had gang raped and brutally killed her beloved daughter, were finally hanged to death in Tihar jail in the early hours on March 20, 2020. It was understandable of the emotions of satisfaction of the girl’s father Badrinath Singh.

Scores of others, especially the women groups and seekers of justice, rejoiced that after waiting for more than seven years, justice was finally granted to Nirbhaya.

No one will justify the gang rape and atrocious murder of that young medical student in a moving bus in Delhi. That’s why there were spontaneous protests and demonstrations immediately after the incident. The hard-cored convicts must be absolutely penalized for their heinous crime. That will serve also as a deterrent to other criminals, who dare to commit such atrocious crimes in our society.

But the question is: Is killing the convicts the only justice in this 21st century? Can we ascertain that their hanging will put an end to rape and murder? Though these convicts have committed a deplorable crime, can we not give these youngsters in their 20’s to repent and amend their lives after a rigorous punishment with life guidance?

Since the convicts had been trying every legal loopholes till the last moment reveal that they had been undergoing all these years a psychological torture. They had been dying all these seven years. That’s why before the execution these youngsters had refused to eat, bathe and begged for mercy on the way to the gallows.

A day after the execution, the UN has appealed again all the countries to end death penalty. The UN General Assembly in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014 had called for a global moratorium on executions. 111 UN member states have supported the resolution of the UN for the removal of the death penalty.

Amnesty International regards death penalty as the “ultimate, irreversible denial of human rights.” After the execution the Amnesty International India working president Avinash Kumar declared, “Death penalty is not the solution. By hanging them, India has made a spot in human rights. Indian courts have used it arbitrarily.” Besides the Amnesty International, worldwide organizations like the Human Rights Watch, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) work for the abolition of death penalty.

Since World War II there has been a trend to abolish it. Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union affirms its prohibition. Almost all First World countries have abolished it. In many countries capital punishment is a matter of controversy. Today 106 countries have completely abolished it and 32 more have not executed it for the last decade. Seven countries impose this punishment only in exceptional cases. Only one third, i.e. 56 countries, including India, retains it and in these countries it is becoming increasingly restrained.

Human rights activists call the death penalty as a “cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.” It violates the right to life which is the most basic of all human rights. Since life is God’s great gift and the divine law forbids killing a human person, the Catholic Church opposes capital punishment. Appealing countries to abolish it, Pope Francis expressed that capital punishment is an offence “against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person, which contradicts God’s plan for man and society” and “does not render justice to the victims, but rather fosters vengeance.”

Though the government imposes death penalty as a deterrent, has the rape and killing of women stopped in India? It has only increased after Nirbhaya case. The National Crime Records Bureau shows that in 2018 police recorded 33,977 rape cases in India, an average of 93 every day, making it the fourth most crime committed against women. Albert Einstein said, “If people are good only because they fear punishment, then we are a sorry lot indeed.” There are also more effective ways to prevent such crimes.

Public support for the death penalty is an expression of anger towards that crime as in Nirbhaya’s case and the desire to get rid of that crime. It does not mean killing the criminal is right. Taking away one’s life is simply revenge and it cannot be condoned. It encourages a culture of violence. Since the right to life is the most fundamental right, capital punishment is the worst violation of human right.

Reiterating what Jesus had preached 2000 years back, M. Gandhi stated, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Death penalty reveals we adhere to the principle of “eye for an eye, rape for rape and death for death.” Imposing death is not justice. There is no humanity in killing a human. Death penalty makes of us all murderers. “It is barbaric to hang someone, whatever be the crime. It is cruelty done to another human being,” writes Anna Mary Yvonne in a letter to ‘The Week’.

Some have condemned the Indian judiciary for taking so long time for executing their verdict and they have also criticized their defending lawyers. Public should remember that taking away one’s life is irreversible. History reveals that some innocent persons had been imposed death penalty. In California a man who had been on death row for 25 years for murdering a young girl, was finally freed since it was proved that the testimony given at the trial court was false. According to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, since 1970 more than 150 people have been exonerated from wrong convictions.

The public anger and the background of the victims also influence the court. Death penalty is often imposed on persons of lower socio-economic background, minorities than against privileged background. While these four convicts hail from lower strata of the society, there are many powerful, wealthy, political and influential persons who escape the noose and even the iron bars. In US 42 percent of those on death row are Black, despite only accounting to less than 13 percent of the population.

History records some persons as great because they have forgiven their assailants. Graham Stuart Staines forgave those who had burned to death her two minor sons along with her husband in Orissa; Kim Phuc pardoned the pilot who had killed her family members and wounded her severely by bombing her house during the Vietnam war; Nelson Mandela forgave the White rulers for imprisoning him for 27 long years and Pope John Paul II went to meet his would be assailant Mohammed Ali Agca in the prison.

Reni George and his three accomplishes were sentenced with capital punishment by the Additional Sessions Court at Mavelikkara, Kerala, for theft and murder of an aged and child-less couple, his relation. But considering George’s young age, the merciful judge at the Alappuzha Sessions Court reduced their capital punishment to life-imprisonment. When he was released on June 23, 1995, after 15 years, George started serving these very prisoners along with his nurse wife Teena.

The couple then began the Prison Fellowship Bengaluru to provide moral, educational and welfare activities for the prisoners. Today it has become a Charter Member of Prison Fellowship International, a consultative member of the UNO. They also started the Precious Children’s Home in 1996 for juvenile delinquents and convicts’ children. Now the couple, along with their young daughter, cares for 156 such children.

Culprits need to be punished, but made to live a new worthwhile life. Logic for the death penalty is that if we kill him, he will never do it again. Yes, he can never do it again. Though it is considered as a deterrent, it has not proved it to be. So there is an urgent need for moratorium of capital punishment in our country too.