Death Penalty Eliminates Criminals, Not Crime

A question might arises that what is more important for us whether to cure the root cause of the disease or whether to finish(kill) the carrier i. e. patient itself who is suffering from that disease. Of course, we need to cure the root cause of that disease. Keeping same in mind one can draw a conclusion that the punishment given should try to cure the root cause of the root cause instead of killing i. e. punishment should try to reform the criminal not just finishing the criminal. It is also said by Mahatma Gandhi that “Love the sinner, Eliminate the sin”.

In Indian constitution there is mention of doctrine of “rarest of the rare case” for capital punishment. But case of Bilkis Bano (who was raped while she was pregnant during Gujarat Riots 2002) where the convicts were not given death penalty because of various variables like situation, communal violence at the same time Nirbhaya case the convicts were hanged. The media here plays a very important role in shaping the judgement as can be seen from judgements of nirbhaya case and bilkis bano where nirbhaya case gained public attention. The judiciary seems to be subjected to popular demand, emotions of people to be biased towards one side which is not the way justice should be given.

The purpose of death penalty or capital punishment is deterrent. It sets an example for whole of the society. It also reflects the crime rate. It provides appropriate justice to people in cases like Nirbhaya rape case, Ajmal Kasab -Mumbai attack, and some more which shows that Judiciary is supreme no can escape the consequences of the crime committed by convict i. e. crime never pays. But at the same time it sets a view in mind of convict that judiciary can only give him death penalty nothing less above it as a result he keeps on doing criminal activities keeping in mind that some day everyone has to die. But here by some way if we can reform his thoughts, way of thinking we can save the coming crimes.

We also realize that eliminating convicts is not the right solution, but the root cause is structure of society which have some flaws which gives grounds to someone to murder, rape someone. Hence need of hour is some reforms in structure of society remembering that “every sinner has a coming future and every saint has a passed past”. We cannot take life of anyone as it is the mentioned in basic structure of our constitution that everyone has a right to life, should be given another chance to grow up once again.