SC gives leeway for commuting death sentence
Source: The Sangai Express / With inputs from PTI
New Delhi, January 21 2014 :
The Supreme Court on Tuesday commuted the death penalty of 15 convicts, including four aides of forest brigand Veerappan to life term on ground of delay in deciding their mercy plea by the govt and mental illness.
The death penalty of 13 condemned prisoners has been commuted to life on the ground of inordinate delay on part of President to decide their mercy pleas.
The other two convicts were given life sentence on finding that long years on death row had made them mentally ill.
The top court held that delay in deciding mercy plea is a relevant ground for commuting death sentence to life imprisonment.
Death sentence of a condemned prisoner cannot be executed if he is suffering from mental illness and schizophrenia and must be commuted to life imprisonment, the judges said.
SC further said there has to be a minimum 14-day gap between the information given to condemned prisoner about rejection of mercy plea and the actual execution date.
This will give the condemned prisoner an opportunity to either challenge the rejection, eat the food he likes, meet family, relatives and friends, the top court said.
The apex court said all condemned prisoners are entitled to free legal aid to draft mercy petitions and challenge its rejection.
Every person on death row, whether convicted for multiple murder or terrorism cases, will have a right to approach SC to challenge the rejection of their mercy petitions on grounds of inordinate delay in deciding the mercy plea, the court said.
Condemned prisoner Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar would benefit from this judgment as the SC disagreed with an earlier judgment which had said inordinate delay would not be applicable to terrorism cases.
The court also made post mortem mandatory after execution of condemned prisoners to find out if hanging by noose in reality is the least painful method to snuff out life.