93.5% of those sentenced to death are Dalits or minorities
AMN /
Putting a big question mark on the India’s judicial system, a recent survey has revealed that three-fourths of those given the death penalty in the country belonged to backward classes and religious minorities; an equal proportion were from economically weaker sections. Moreover as many as 93.5% of those sentenced to death for terror offenses are Dalits or religious minorities.
The reason is obvious poor, Dalits and those from the backward castes get a rough treatment from courts as their inability to find a competent lawyer to contest their conviction.
The first of its kind of stu
dy conducted by National Law University students with the help of Law Commission has been published by the Times of India today.
The study has analysed data from interviews with 373 death row convicts over a 15-year period. The NLU students have interviewed all the death sentence convicts and have documented their socio-economic background. The psychological torture these prisoners face before they are hanged are some of the observations in the study . Prisoners on death row are not allowed to attend court proceedings most of the time.
Law panel chairman Justice A P Shah, himself a strong proponent of abo lition of death penalty , is to submit a final report to the Supreme Court by next month.
Photo- TOI
