Constitutionality Of Death Penalty Research Articles

Constitutional Aspect of Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in Delivering the Judgments Relating to Cases Challenging the Constitutionality of Death Penalty

Constitutional Aspect of Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in Delivering the Judgments Relating to Cases Challenging the Constitutionality of Death Penalty

Thou Shall Not Kill: The Constitutionality of Death Penalty Under Nigerian Legal System

Abstract Two wrongs cannot make a right; there is hardly any justification for the continual use of capital punishment (death) as a form of punishment in Nigeria. This paper will canvass that, even though death penalty is a constitutionally permissible form of punishment in Nigeria, but it goes against the recent positive and developmental strides in the areas of civilization, criminology and human right. The paper leans in favor of the abolitionist perspective by arguing that life imprisonment is as effective as the death penalty as a means of deterrence.

Death Penalty in India: A Case of Reckless Justice

The paper analyses the law and practice of death penalty in India and argues that it fails to conform to the constitutional mandates of equality, fairness and justice. Part-II of the paper deals with thean overview of the death penalty laws in India. Part III contains an enunciation of the challenge to the constitutionality of death penalty and how the Supreme Court has, through a creative formulation of the test of rarest of rare upheld its validity. Part IV examines the decisions of the Supreme Court and analyses to what extent the Court has been able to consistently deliver justice in accordance with the principles of stare decisis and equality of law. The paper follows a three pronged approach in demonstrating why the law and practice of death penalty in India must be objected to. First argument concerns the misinterpretation of ‘rarest of rare’ by later benches of the apex court. Secondly, it analyses cases where similar facts have been treated dissimilarly resulting in a violation of the basic canon of justice that like cases must be treated alike. Finally, the possibility of subjective factors, including the constitution of benches and personal philosophy of the judges creeping in to decision making beyond permissible limits casting shadow on the objectivity of judicial decision making.

Indian Judiciary on Death Penalty

The Supreme Court of India as the highest Judicial Tribunal of the country has given its authoritative decisions on various points of law from time to time. The apex court has examined the constitutional validity, procedure and many other issues related to death sentence and delivered its valuable verdict on numerous occasions in last 50-60 years. The constitutionality of death penalty has been questioned before the Supreme Court several times on the ground that it contravenes provisions incorporated in Indian Constitution. However, the Court has made it clear many times that the imposition of death penalty is not opposed to the supreme law of the land, Bhagwati, J., is of opinion that Sec. 302 of the I.P.C. in so for as it provides for imposition of death penalty as an alternative to life sentence is ultra vires and void as being violative of Art. 14 and 21 of the constitution since it does not provide any legislative guidelines as to when life should be permitted to be extinguished by imposition of death sentence.

The Constitutionality of Death Penalty under Nigerian Law

Capital punishment is a well known, controversial and universal concept. Among all the issues that criminal punishment raises, none has been the subject of greater public controversy as death penalty. This paper has shown that death penalty is a constitutionally permissible form of punishment in Nigeria. The paper leans in favour of the abolitionist perspective by arguing that life imprisonment is as effective as the death penalty as a means of deterrence. For an effective analysis, this paper is divided into seven distinct but related subheadings, viz.: Introduction, Conceptual Clarifications, Historical Development of the Death Penalty in Nigeria, Modes of Executing Capital Punishment, Cruelty of Death Penalty, Constitutionality of Death Penalty and Conclusion.