Model Question and Answers for APSC | Discuss the relevance of the death penalty and challenges to its existence. Capital punishment, also called the death penalty

Ans: Why the death penalty is important:

• Deterrence: A common argument for capital punishment is that putting murderers to death will stop other murderers from killing people.
• Punishment: People should get what they deserve based on how bad their crime was. This argument says that people who do wrong need to suffer for it, and they need to suffer in a way that fits the crime.

Challenges to the Death Penalty:

• Deterrence Doesn't Work: Statistics don't show that deterrence is Some of those who were put to death may not have been able to be stopped because they were mentally ill or had other problems.
• Since 2013 (Section 376A of the Indian Penal Code), rapes have been punishable by However, rapes are still happening, and they are getting much worse. This makes it hard to believe that the death penalty is an effective deterrent.
• Execution of the Innocent: The most common argument against the death penalty is that mistakes or flaws in the justice system could lead to innocent people being killed at some point.
• Human Rights Watch: As long as human justice is not perfect, there will always be a chance that an innocent person will be put to death.
• Built-up countries: Most developed countries have done away with the death penalty as a form of punishment.
• No Rehab: The person who gets the death penalty doesn't get better and go back into society.
• Mistakes: The death penalty does not give a person a second chance to fix his mistakes.

Way Forward:

• The Constitution gives us new rules. Bench may come up with new rules that would let the trial courts themselves do a full investigation of an offender's upbringing, education, and social and economic situation before deciding on a punishment.
• Manoj and Others vs. M.P. State: The trial court must take into account the social environment, the level of education, whether or not the accused has been through trauma in the past, the accused's family situation, a psychological evaluation of the convict, and the behaviour of the convict after he or she has been convicted.
• The three judges took a bold step. Bench may have earned a good grade: The future of the mission to make criminal justice more human will depend on how the larger Bench is made up and what the judges want.
• Taking into account what western scholars of critical criminal law have said: Differentiating between "early guilt," which is prosecutorial and punitive, and "mature guilt," which is developmental and positive.

• In 2015, the Law Commission, which was led by Justice A. P. Shah, suggested getting rid of the death penalty. But the commission had only made the proposal for cases that did not involve terrorism.
• Article 21: Article 21 of the Constitution says that everyone has a fundamental right to life and dignity. This also means that everyone has the right to die with dignity.