Will the hanging system end in the country?
Capital punishment means death sentence. It is a legal system to give death penalty to a person for any heinous crime like murder, rape or terrorism. There has been a 28 percent reduction in death sentences given by lower courts in 2023. In 2023, lower courts (trial courts) awarded death sentence to a total of 120 convicts. Whereas last year 167 prisoners were given death sentence. The special thing is that there has been a significant decline in the decisions of the appellate courts upholding the death penalty.
The supreme court did not uphold the death sentence of any person in 2023. The karnataka high court upheld the death penalty in only one murder case. The speed of disposal of such death penalty cases in the high court has decreased by 15 percent. National Law university of delhi has released its eighth report named Project 39A. Since 2016, reports of death row prisoners are being released every year. According to this, a total of 561 prisoners were given death sentence by the end of december 2023. This figure is 45 percent more than 2016.
supreme court did not uphold anyone's sentence
In 2023, when an appeal was made in the supreme court against the death sentence given by the trial court, it was found that there were flaws in the police investigation and lack of evidence. Due to this, many accused were acquitted or their punishment was reduced. 87% of death sentences were given without understanding the background or circumstances of the accused before being sentenced. While giving its verdict, the supreme court also looked at how these people stayed in jail and what their mental conditions were like. kerala and telangana high court have also now sought similar reports in 13 such cases.