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Write an essay about - Capital Punishment in India

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Capital Punishment

"If we are to abolish the death penalty, I should like to see the first step taken by my friends the murderers." ALPHONSE KARR. This sums up the emotions and opinions of most in support of the death sentence as an appropriate means of punishment for hardened criminals.

The basic purpose of criminal laws of any nation is the reformation of offenders and not retribution. But it is also the responsibility of the same state to protect the interests of the society at large and reiterate the society's faith in system of justice and capital punishment may be a means to this end.

From the study of history, we can see the prevalence of capital punishment since time immemorial, which includes death by hanging the offender in public, lethal injections, electrocution etc. The punishment has since been abolished by almost 139 countries of the world and amongst those who retain it, partially or wholly include countries in Asia including India, Pakistan and China, Latin America and Caribbean including Trinidad & Tobago and Cuba, North America including the USA. The reasons in favour of retaining capital punishment include safety (of society), deterrence and costs (of maintaining such criminals in the prisons). It can be seen that capital punishment is an appropriate penalty for many offenders who are perpetrators of the inhuman act of killing people with utmost impunity and disregard for human life.

The use of capital punishment is also viewed as a means of vengeance for the victims/ families of the victims of such barbaric acts. But this is far from being the aim of capital punishment as it is not always possible to hand out the sentence in every instance where the family/ the public at large believe that it is the most suitable punishment. A good example of the same is the Indian case involving Dara Singh who burned alive Mr. Graham Staines, an Australian missionary and his 8 year old son in 1999. The Supreme Court, dismissing the CBI's plea for death sentence said that the case did not fall within the framework of 'rarest of rare cases'.