Trial courts gave 165 death sentences last year – highest since 2000, shows report

By the end of 2022, a total of 539 persons were on death row in India, the highest since 2004, criminal reforms advocacy group Project 39A said.

Scroll Staff

· Jan 30, 2023 · 04:20 pm

Death penalty: Five-judge Constitution bench to frame rules on mitigating circumstances

The Supreme Court is hearing a suo motu plea on how accused persons could present arguments against a death sentence before they are convicted.

Scroll Staff

· Sep 19, 2022 · 03:07 pm

Why SC thinks courts humanely evaluating the accused could reduce rush to award death penalty

Currently, death penalties focus only on the crime and not the accused and their scope for reform.

Umang Poddar

· May 28, 2022 · 06:30 am

Beant Singh assassination: SC directs Centre to decide on convict’s mercy plea in two months

Balwant Singh Rajoana, a former Punjab police constable, wants his death sentence reduced to life imprisonment, saying he has served 26 years in jail.

Scroll Staff

· May 02, 2022 · 03:57 pm

Number of prisoners on death row in India highest in 17 years, says report

As of December 31, 2020, a total of 404 prisoners were on death row, an increase of nearly 21% from 2020.

Scroll Staff

· Jan 31, 2022 · 02:42 pm

Complainant’s age is not the only criteria for death penalty in rape-murder cases, says SC

The court commuted the death penalty of a man convicted for raping and murdering a five-year-old girl in Karnataka in 2010.

Scroll Staff

· Nov 10, 2021 · 11:14 am

Singapore court delays hanging of Malaysian man after he contracts coronavirus

The man of Indian origin was given death penalty in 2010 after he was caught with drugs. Human rights groups have urged Singapore to reconsider his execution.

Scroll Staff

· Nov 09, 2021 · 09:27 pm

‘An obscene law’: How Tamil writer Sundara Ramaswamy argued against the death penalty in 1999

Ramaswamy was responding to 26 convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case being sentenced to death. After an appeal, the sentence was confirmed for four.

Sundara Ramaswamy

· Jun 05, 2021 · 12:30 pm

Beant Singh assassination: SC gives Centre two weeks to decide on convict’s mercy plea

The Centre sought three weeks to decide on the nine-year-old mercy plea of convict Balwant Singh Rajoana.

Scroll Staff

· Jan 25, 2021 · 01:58 pm

In his last-minute killing spree, Donald Trump has trampled over an array of legal barriers

Court records show private executioners being paid in cash, middle-of-the-night killings and false or incomplete justifications.

Isaac Arnsdorf, ProPublica

· Dec 26, 2020 · 11:30 pm

Trump administration is holding out the prospect of using cruel, discredited methods of execution

It is aiming to kill as many death row inmates as possible before Joe Biden takes office and ends capital punishment.

Austin Sarat, The Conversation

· Dec 06, 2020 · 11:30 am

Death penalty: Supreme Court sets six-month deadline for itself to list appeals for hearing

The court issued an office order on Wednesday to give guidelines for the handling of death-row cases expeditiously.

Scroll Staff

· Feb 15, 2020 · 08:48 am