THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former Supreme Court judge Justice Kurien Joseph has reiterated the need for reviewing death penalty as punishment.
The former judge told a regional news channel that capital punishment had not resulted in decrease in the crimes for which death penalty is given. He suggested that person should be given imprisonment for the entire life instead.
According to him, the trial courts had been imposing death penalties “arbitrarily and freakishly”.
As many as 118 death penalties were imposed in a year. The jurist said that social and media trial in such cases was putting undue pressure on the judges. The main argument against capital punishment is that it deprives people of the opportunity to reform.
Justice Joseph had earlier also called for reviewing the need for death penalty as a punishment, especially its purpose and practice. The big question is whether as punishment death penalty has served any goal, he had said.
Those supporting death penalty have argued that criminals deserved the death that he has inflicted on the victim by committing homicide.
