| by B. Raman
( November 23, 2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka
Guardian) Fear of death rarely acts as a deterrent to irrational or
well-motivated people. It also rarely prevents crimes of passion or crimes
committed in the heat of the moment.
2.If fear of death can be a deterrent,
there should be no suicide terrorism. Nor should there be other dastardly
crimes. They continue to take place in countries which have death penalty on their statute book. The
US is a typical example.
3. In the US, there is not only death
penalty. In many States, it is even executed in public thinking that it would
add to the deterrence. But it does not.
4. The execution of Timothy McVeigh, who
carried out the Oklahoma bombing in 1995, was televised, but it has had no
effect on potential criminals. There have been many hate and irrational crimes
in the US after his execution, including the recent massacre of innocent
worshippers in a US gurudwara.
5. The long-held impression that death
penalty is necessary in the rarest of rare cases to deter others from carrying
out dastardly crimes has no provable basis.
6. Since last year, I have been arguing
against death penalty due to two reasons. First, it doesn’t deter. Second,
there is always a danger of a miscarriage of justice due to errors in
investigation, prosecution and trial. If the errors come to notice after the
execution of the death sentence, no corrective action is possible. I also
believe that a State should not kill its citizens for whatever reason.
7. At the same time, one has to make an
exception in the case of offences that amount to a war crime or an act of
treason. These are crimes committed by someone---either a foreigner or our own
national--- at the instance of or on behalf of a foreign State or non-State
actor involving deliberate loss of life or national property or critical infrastructure. In such
cases the option of a death penalty should be available on the statute book to
make it clear that anyone who acts at the instance or on behalf of a foreign
State or non-State organisation has to pay a heavy price that may even involve
loss of life through execution.
8. Our laws relating to death penalty
need to be revisited in order to provide for death penalty only against those
acting at the instance or on behalf of a foreign State or non-State organisation. In other
cases, life-long imprisonment should be
the norm.
9.The execution of Ajmal Kasab, the
Pakistani terrorist belonging to the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), who participated in
the 26/11 terrorist strikes in Mumbai, was totally justified. We need have no
regret over it.
10. At the same time, I do feel that
even in the case of persons acting at the behest of a foreign State or
non-State organisations there should be special exception to carrying out the death penalty for reasons
of State to prevent internal disharmony.
11. The case of Afsal Guru, sentenced to
death for participating in the attack on the Indian Parliament in
December,2001, should come under this category. He should not be executed.
12. It is time to re-formulate our laws
relating to death penalty to provide for nuances on the lines mentioned above.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For
China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com
Twitter @SORBONNE75)
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