Release: Sentencing Report

May 15 2020

Releasing Project 39A's report titled 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗣𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘁𝘆 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘁𝘀: 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗵𝗶, 𝗠𝗮𝗱𝗵𝘆𝗮 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗵𝘁𝗿𝗮 Ms. Rebecca John (Senior Advocate) and Dr. Anup Surendranath explored current questions around the administration of the death penalty in India. Project lead, Ms. Neetika Vishwanath presented the main findings from the study which analysed all (215) trial court judgments from Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra imposing death sentences between 2000 and 2015. The report found poor state compliance in trial courts with the Supreme Court Case laying the law on capital sentencing- Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab. Further, it noted even after 40 years of the Bachan Singh framework, the death penalty sentencing jurisprudence has several fundamental unresolved issues.