Re: [AI] India joins nations which don't execute mentally ill convicts -
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 kanchanpamn...@gmail.comSent: Mon, 03 Jun 2019 13:47:31To: AccessIndia: a list for discussing accessibility and issues concerning the disabled. accessindia@accessindia.org.inSubject: [AI] India joins nations which dont execute mentally ill convicts -India joins nations which dont execute mentally ill convicts - Times ofIndiaJun 2, 2019,NEW DELHI: In a landmark judgment catapulting India into a league of nationsthat dont 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 detre 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 SCs 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/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/To unsubscribe send a message
[AI] India joins nations which don't execute mentally ill convicts -
India joins nations which don't execute mentally ill convicts - Times of India Jun 2, 2019, NEW DELHI: In a landmark judgment catapulting India into a league of nations that don't execute lunatics, the Supreme Court has barred the execution of a person if he develops a mental illness and loses cognitive power during post-conviction imprisonment. Courts across the world, including India, have historically considered mental illness as a mitigating circumstance for imposition of lenient sentences as the offender, because of his mental incapacity, seldom knows the consequences of his action, which becomes a crime. But this is the first time that the SC, through a bench of Justices N V Ramana, M M Shantanagoudar and Indira Banerjee, took note that punishment is a communication from the sentencing system to the criminal about the consequences of his action. When a condemned prisoner loses cognitive power because of postconviction mental illness, the essence of that communication - consequences of the crime - is lost, it said. Writing the judgment for the bench, Justice Ramana said, "The notion of death penalty and the sufferance it brings along causes incapacitation and is idealised to invoke a sense of deterrence. If the accused is not able to understand the impact and purpose of his execution because of his disability, the raison d'etre for the execution itself collapses." "When such a disability occurs, a person may not be in a position to understand the implications of his actions and the consequences it entails. In this situation, the execution of such a person would lower the majesty of law," Justice Ramana said. This judgment came in a petition seeking review of the SC's 2008 ruling in which it had upheld the death penalty awarded by the trial court and Bombay HC to a person, referred to as "X" by the court, for sexually assaulting and murdering two minor girls in December 1999 at Gulumb in Maharashtra. While relieving him of execution, the SC ordered that he should be kept in jail till death as given the serious crime, it would not be safe to send him back to society even though he has spent 20 years in prison, 17 of them on death row. Realising that this ruling could be misused, the SC warned that post-conviction mental illness could not be used as a ruse by condemned prisoners to escape the noose. "This ground needs to be utilised only in extreme cases of mental illness... only extreme cases of convicts being mentally ill are not executed," the bench said. "This court cautions against utilisation of this dicta as a ruse to escape the gallows by pleading such defence even if such ailment is not of grave severity," it said. The Justice Ramana -led bench laid down the test of post-conviction severe mental illness as a ground for non-execution of condemned prisoners. "The test envisaged herein predicates that the offender needs to have a severe mental illness or disability, which simply means that a medical professional would objectively consider the illness to be most serious so that he cannot understand or comprehend the nature and purpose behind the imposition of death penalty. These disorders generally include schizophrenia, other serious psychotic disorders, and dissociative disorders with schizophrenia," the SC said. Justices Ramana, Shantanagoudar and Banerjee discussed in detail judgments from the US and UK Supreme Courts on this issue besides taking note of the related global judicial trends on post-conviction mental illness of condemned prisoners. They said, "It is a well-acknowledged fact throughout the world that prisons are difficult places to be in. The World Health Organisation and the International Red Cross identify that multiple circumstances such as overcrowding, various forms of violence, enforced solitude, lack of privacy, inadequate healthcare facilities, concerns about family etc can take a toll on the mental health of prisoners." The SC said, "Due to prevailing lack of awareness about such issues, the prisoners have no recourse and their mental health keeps on degrading day by day. The prevailing argument in favour of such prisoners is that - whether imposition of death penalty upon such prisoners is justified, who have clearly impaired their abilities to even understand the nature and purpose of such punishment and the reason for such imposition?" --- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. https://www.avg.com Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in 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
