Number of prisoners sentenced to dying at 488, highest in 17 years: Report

“2011 noticed the very best variety of year-end prisoners on dying row at 488 since 2016, a rise of about 21% from 2020. When in comparison with knowledge from India’s Prison Statistics Report launched by the National Crime Records Bureau, it has the very best dying penalty inhabitants since 2004, when it was 563,” it mentioned.

The report on the annual statistics on the dying penalty by Project 39A is anticipated to be launched on Monday. Project 39A is a prison legislation reform advocacy group on the National Law University, Delhi.

The report steered that restricted functioning of courts because of the pandemic has affected the precedence given to instances associated to capital punishment.

“Limited functioning of the appellate courts in both 2020 and 2021 means fewer appeals of prisoners are being adjudicated, and the number of prisoners sentenced to death remains high at the end of the year,” it mentioned.

According to the report, whereas the trial courts awarded a complete of 144 dying sentences in 2021, the excessive courts determined solely 39 instances in the identical interval. In 2020, excessive courts determined 31 instances associated to the dying penalty, in comparison with 76 in 2019. Despite the Supreme Court itemizing dying penalty instances on precedence in September final yr, it determined solely 6 instances in 2021, in comparison with 11 in 2020 and 28 in 2019.

The report mentioned that out of 39 instances involving dying penalty determined by excessive courts, solely 4 confirmed dying sentences. While 18 have been commuted to life imprisonment, 15 have been acquitted of all prices, and two instances have been referred again to the trial courtroom. The report famous that almost all of instances wherein decrease courts awarded the dying penalty concerned homicide, bucking the rising development of awarding the dying penalty for intercourse offences.