At long last we can boast of high standards of jurisprudence! Never mind, if the International community shakes us up!!!A K Dua+919876727460www.ourcivilsociety.comFrom: "Kanchan Pamnani" <[email protected]>Sent: Mon, 03 Jun 2019 13:47:31To: "'AccessIndia: a list for discussing accessibility and issues concerning the disabled.'" <[email protected]>Subject: [AI] India joins nations which don't execute mentally ill convicts -India joins nations which don't execute mentally ill convicts - Times ofIndiaJun 2, 2019,NEW DELHI: In a landmark judgment catapulting India into a league of nationsthat don't execute lunatics, the Supreme Court has barred the execution of aperson if he develops a mental illness and loses cognitive power duringpost-conviction imprisonment. Courts across the world, including India, havehistorically considered mental illness as a mitigating circumstance forimposition of lenient sentences as the offender, because of his mentalincapacity, seldom knows the consequences of his action, which becomes acrime. But this is the first time that the SC, through a bench of Justices NV Ramana, M M Shantanagoudar and Indira Banerjee, took note that punishmentis a communication from the sentencing system to the criminal about theconsequences of his action. When a condemned prisoner loses cognitive powerbecause of postconviction mental illness, the essence of that communication- consequences of the crime - is lost, it said. Writing the judgment for thebench, Justice Ramana said, "The notion of death penalty and the sufferanceit brings along causes incapacitation and is idealised to invoke a sense ofdeterrence. If the accused is not able to understand the impact and purposeof his execution because of his disability, the raison d'etre for theexecution itself collapses." "When such a disability occurs, a person maynot be in a position to understand the implications of his actions and theconsequences it entails. In this situation, the execution of such a personwould lower the majesty of law," Justice Ramana said.This judgment came in a petition seeking review of the SC's 2008 ruling inwhich it had upheld the death penalty awarded by the trial court and BombayHC to a person, referred to as "X" by the court, for sexually assaulting andmurdering two minor girls in December 1999 at Gulumb in Maharashtra. Whilerelieving him of execution, the SC ordered that he should be kept in jailtill death as given the serious crime, it would not be safe to send him backto society even though he has spent 20 years in prison, 17 of them on deathrow. Realising that this ruling could be misused, the SC warned thatpost-conviction mental illness could not be used as a ruse by condemnedprisoners to escape the noose. "This ground needs to be utilised only inextreme cases of mental illness... only extreme cases of convicts beingmentally ill are not executed," the bench said. "This court cautions againstutilisation of this dicta as a ruse to escape the gallows by pleading suchdefence even if such ailment is not of grave severity," it said. The JusticeRamana -led bench laid down the test of post-conviction severe mentalillness as a ground for non-execution of condemned prisoners. "The testenvisaged herein predicates that the offender needs to have a severe mentalillness or disability, which simply means that a medical professional wouldobjectively consider the illness to be most serious so that he cannotunderstand or comprehend the nature and purpose behind the imposition ofdeath penalty. These disorders generally include schizophrenia, otherserious psychotic disorders, and dissociative disorders with schizophrenia,"the SC said. Justices Ramana, Shantanagoudar and Banerjee discussed indetail judgments from the US and UK Supreme Courts on this issue besidestaking note of the related global judicial trends on post-conviction mentalillness of condemned prisoners. They said, "It is a well-acknowledged factthroughout the world that prisons are difficult places to be in. The WorldHealth Organisation and the International Red Cross identify that multiplecircumstances such as overcrowding, various forms of violence, enforcedsolitude, lack of privacy, inadequate healthcare facilities, concerns aboutfamily etc can take a toll on the mental health of prisoners."The SC said, "Due to prevailing lack of awareness about such issues, theprisoners have no recourse and their mental health keeps on degrading day byday. The prevailing argument in favour of such prisoners is that - whetherimposition of death penalty upon such prisoners is justified, who haveclearly impaired their abilities to even understand the nature and purposeof such punishment and the reason for such imposition?"---This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.https://www.avg.comSearch for old postings at:http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/To unsubscribe send a message [email protected] the subject unsubscribe.To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page athttp://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.inDisclaimer:1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
