“But what then is capital punishment but the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal’s deed, however calculated it may be, can be compared? For there to be equivalence, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life.”
-Albert Camus
A Kolkata court recently sentenced Sanjay Roy, the convict in the rape and murder case of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, to life imprisonment until death. The judge has shown admirable sagacity by awarding a life imprisonment in the broadest sense of the term. But people across the country are unhappy. They want capital punishment for Sanjay Roy. Does capital punishment have a place in a civilised society? Is the death rap a deterrent to heinous crimes? These are the pertinent questions that are raising their heads amidst the hullabaloo related to custodial killings and hangings.
Most of the countries in the western hemisphere have abolished the death penalty. England did away with it in 1965, following an innocent person’s hanging. Only a few states in the US still retain capital punishment. The Arab and Islamic nations still decapitate the convicts in public. The point is: What purpose does capital punishment serve? Rapes, murders and highway robberies (yes, an armed robbery also deserves capital punishment!) are still happening at regular intervals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, despite the fact that perpetrators are beheaded publicly? Now the question is: What makes the masses so enamoured of executions?
There’s a fine line between justice and vengeance. It’s easy to cross that line when you’re consumed by anger and grief. While justice aims to restore order and uphold righteousness, vengeance is driven by anger and a desire for retaliation. In the heat of the moment, it can be easy to blur the line between the two, especially when consumed by intense emotions like grief and anger.
However, it is important to exercise caution and restraint in such situations, as crossing that line can lead to destructive consequences and perpetuate a cycle of violence and suffering. It serves as a reminder that it is crucial to act with a clear mind and a sense of fairness in the pursuit of justice, rather than let emotions cloud our judgement. I
n the end, we’re all just trying to survive in this chaotic world. Some of us just have bloodier methods than others. Ultimately, our main objective is to survive, regardless of the means we choose to achieve it. Some individuals may resort to violent or ruthless tactics in order to navigate through the turmoil of existence, while others may opt for more peaceful and ethical approaches.
The struggle for survival can bring out different sides of our nature, with some individuals embracing darker and bloodier methods to secure their place in this tumultuous world.
Capital punishment is often a source of macabre entertainment for the masses, as humans are basically violent and also sinister. We don’t understand the simplest thing, that to take a life when a life has been lost is revenge, not justice. You may have noticed that the learned judges always show the utmost restraint while awarding a capital punishment to a person.
That’s why judges all over the world break the nib of the pen after sentencing a man to death. It’s the duty of the state to protect the lives of its citizens regardless of criminals or commoners. So, how can the state take the life of a person? Furthermore, capital punishments are often arbitrary.
The most glaring weakness is that no matter how efficient and fair the death penalty may seem in theory, in actual practice it is primarily inflicted upon the weak, the poor, the ignorant and minorities. Out of 62 hangings (the last being four convicts of the Nirbhaya case hanged at Tihar Jail) till March 20, 2020 in independent India, how many were affluent? Most of the convicts to the gallows were impoverished, who couldn’t defend themselves as they were woefully poor and unrepresented.
The examples of hired killers Kartar Singh and Ujagar Singh come to mind, who were hanged in the Vidya Jain murder case. They committed the crime for just Rs 500. While the President’s personal eye surgeon, Dr. Jain, and his paramour didn’t even complete their full term of life imprisonment because of ‘good’ conduct, Kartar Singh and Ujagar Singh were sent to the gallows.
Brian Stevenson aptly said that the reality is that capital punishment in America is a lottery. It is a punishment that is shaped by the constraints of poverty, race, geography and local politics. Capital punishment is not just demeaning to the person who’s executed, but it’s also degrading and disgraceful to all of us because it can be argued that rapists deserve to be raped and that mutilators deserve to be mutilated.
Most societies, however, refrain from responding in this way because the punishment is not only degrading to those on whom it is imposed, but it is also degrading to the society that engages in the same behaviour as the criminals. Capital punishment is irreversible as well; once executed, executed forever. As long as we have capital punishment, there is no guarantee that innocent people won’t be put to death.
Lastly, capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is as a cure for poverty. It’s a perpetuation of our cave-dwelling past and a throwback to our atavistic savagery. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Humans have to be humane to universally discard death rap as an outright inhuman act, thought and practice. It must prick our conscience.
Sumit Paul is a regular contributor to the world’s premier publications and portals in several languages
