DEATH PENALTY (AGAINST)

“If we believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our society, then it has to be wrong for
everyone, not just individuals but governments as well.” -Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking

We should follow Reformative justice not retributive justice

The notion of ‘an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth’ has no place in our constitutionally mediated
criminal justice system. Capital punishment fails to achieve any constitutionally valid
penological goals… In focusing on death penalty as the ultimate measure of justice to victims,
the restorative and rehabilitative aspects of justice are lost sight of.

Law Commission of India 35th

The practice cannot always be said to be just and fair.

In 2012, 37 percent of India's 1.21 billion people fell below the international poverty line, which is
$1.25 a day, according to the Indian Planning Commission.
Those with good financial background are able to afford the best lawyers while the poor
criminals have to accept the punishment without any arguments. Sometimes an innocent person
may be wrongly convicted of such heinous crime. As death sentence is irrevocable - an innocent
person can also be wrongly executed.

Terminating the life of a criminal would never terminate the crime itself. Thus, it is often argued
that if we execute a criminal then there would be no difference between us and the criminal. By
executing the criminals, crime rate cannot be decreased in the society. Crimes are still found to
be high in countries where death penalty is legal.

2016 –out of 15 – 10 convicted

2017 – out of 18 -12 convicted

2018 – out of 23 – 18 convicted

official government statistics claim that fifty-two people had been executed since Independence. However, research by
the People's Union for Civil Liberties indicates that the actual number of executions is in fact much higher, as they located
records of 1,422 executions in the decade from 1953 to 1963 alone

Everyone deserves a second chance and since all crimes are related to the psychology of an
individual, the punishment of death penalty might seem unfair to some.