50 clemency pleas pending before Prez

[sidmis]

50 clemency pleas pending before Prez
as reported by DNA Correspondent , Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Clemency petitions of 50 persons sentenced to death for various offences including those filed by Parliament attack convict Mohammed Afzal and Rajiv Gandhi’s assassin Murugan are pending before the President of India.
While 32 death row convicts’ mercy petitions are awaiting a decision from the President for over five years now, the oldest pending petition dates back to 1998.

The details regarding pending mercy petitions were revealed by the union home ministry in a Right to Information application filed by social activist Shailesh Gandhi. The clemency petitions are filed under Article 72 of the Indian Constitution, which empowers the President of India can grant pardon and commute a death sentence.

According to Gandhi, the inordinate delay in deciding the fate of such petitions defeats the purpose of imposing such a severe punishment on perpetrators of heinous crimes.

“The information reveals the inability of the State to punish the guilty as per the law and this is leading to promotion of lawlessness,” Gandhi said.
The list of 50 petitions includes one from Maharashtra — filed by SB Pingale, whose death penalty was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 1999. Among the other states, the highest number pending petitions are of 14 convicts from Uttar Pradesh, nine from Tamil Nadu, seven from Karnataka, four from Punjab, three from Madhya Pradesh and two each from Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana.

“After a tortuously slow process of investigation and judicial delivery when some people are sentenced to death for the most heinous crimes, Article 72 of the Constitution is used to ensure that the judicial pronouncements are frustrated,” lamented Gandhi. For instance, the four Punjab convicts, who have sought clemency, were convicted killing 17 teenagers in Punjab.
Criminal lawyer Shrikant Bhatt said that it is incumbent that all powers conferred by law are exercised in a logical and reasoned manner. While there are no specific guidelines on examining clemency petitions, the broad criteria generally adopted are; personality of the accused such as age, sex or mental deficiency, or circumstances of the case, conduct of the offender and medical abnormality falling short of legal insanity.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, between 1995-2006, the President has rejected seven mercy petitions and commuted two, while between 1985 to 1994 it rejected 41 mercy petitions and commuted four. As many as 173 such petitions were received between 1975 to 1984 of which 121 were rejected and 52 commuted. However, a maximum of 543 mercy petitions were commuted between 1965 to 1974 during which 491 such petitions were rejected.

DNA - Mumbai - 50 clemency pleas pending before Prez - Daily News & Analysis

[karira]

As reported by Ketki Angre in ndtv.com on 27 August 2008:
NDTV.com: Merciless long queue for mercy petitions

Merciless long queue for mercy petitions

Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru is not the only man waiting for his death pardon to be reversed by the President. Sentenced to death in 2005, Afzal Guru may be the face of a raging debate on death penalty and clemency.

But an Right to Information activist who petitioned the President's office found that the number of pending mercy petitions of those who want their death sentence changed to life is as many as 50.

The long delay he says subverts the very idea of the death sentence.

''It clearly shows that there is no procedure of decision making, no will to ensure punishments are meted out that becomes the root cause of criminality we see in society. In a democracy there is no place for arbitrariness, there is discretion,'' said Shailesh Gandhi, RTI Activist.

Of the 50 petitions pending with the President and the Home Ministry more than 30 have remained undecided for over five years, a delay that in some cases exceeds even the trial period.

Among those whose petitions are pending before the President are Gurmeet Singh of Uttar Pradesh who murdered 13 members of his family in 1986, Sonia and Sanjeev convicted for the murder of an ex-MLA and 7 of his family members and Praveen Kumar who murdered 4 relatives, stood trial, escaped from jail and was later re-arrested.

Many say the delay reflects the ongoing dilemma in India over the death penalty, which as the Supreme Court had ruled in 1983 should be used in the rarest of rare cases.

The death penalty is too sensitive an issue to tackle headlong and most politicians in power are only too happy to pretend it doesn't exist on their to-do list especially in an election year.

For the accused it only means agonising delay in what is for them a life or death question.