Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Death Penalty: Issues for Discussion

This week's group has identified the following as the main issues for discussion at tomorrow's forum. Please think about them, as you read/re-visit the judgment:
Bariyar Issues
1. What constitutes “Rarest of Rare”?
2. Is Bariyar feasible? Or has it imposed a moratorium on the death penalty?
3. What is the rationale behind the death penalty (in light of Bariyar),given Shraddhanand’s definition of life imprisonment?
4. Does the Bariyar standard affect judicial discretion?
5. The question of reformation of the criminal wrt remission (is thejudiciary curtailing the power of the Executive of sentence and parole?)(Shawshank Redemption)
Additional Issues
1. Mandatory Death Sentences and violation of Article 6 of the ICCPR
2. Global Opinion on the death penalty
3. Mode of Execution: is hanging inhumane?
4. Delays and negligence by administrative and judicial officers(Dhananjoy Chatterjee)
5. Should age and mental imbalance (at the time of execution) affectexecution of death penalty?
Please feel free to add to these issues in the comments section, if you think there is something more that needs to be discussed or highlighted.
EDIT (Aparna): We should also debate the "big-picture" issue of the justification/constitutionality of death penalty- and examine Bariyar's contribution to the debate. Has the court added to the moral and constitutional debates on death penalty by focusing on the more pragmatic issue of "arbitrariness"? How does that shape our understanding of whether the death penalty is constitutional? Also, once the court took cognizance of arbitrariness in the capital punishment regime, did it abdicate its responsibility by not refering the matter to a larger bench for a re-examination of Bachchan Singh?

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