The Lonesome Road

The debate whether capital punishment should be abolished or not is an old one. It is a testimony to the seriousness of the issue that it is still alive.

Coming to the specifics, Dhananjoy Chatterjee ended a life - a first degree murder. By the law, his sentence is death. What is wrong in these cases is the speed of justice.

Rather than questioning the decision of the judicial system, it’s the appalling delay after which the decision is given that is the crucial factor. A crime that was commited in 1990 has taken 14 years to come full circle to the man who commited it. In normal cases the concerned person/criminal waits out most of his life in jail, waiting for the day his case will see the light. In many ways, it is a punishment in itself.

While I agree with the author of India Be Not Proud about the examples he has given, there are countless more examples where killers have escaped scot free and gone on to commit more crimes. The death penalty is the ultimate punishment - and as such one to be dispensed lightly. It acts as much as a deterrent as a punishment. But if there is no bite behind the sentence - there is no use. A mad dog must be put down - not locked in a cell and pardoned after a set period of time.

This is always a hard issue to look at objectively - emotions and sympathies always come in the way.

It’s not just a question of re-examining justice. It’s a question of re-examining the system that spawns this “justice”.