[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 21



INDIA:

No relief for death row-turned-life convicts: Centre


The Centre today contended in the Supreme Court that state governments had no 
power to reduce the jail terms of convicts whose death penalty had been 
commuted to life sentence.

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar made the submissions before a 5-member 
Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu. The other members are 
Justices FMI Kalifulla, PC Ghose, AM Sapre and UU Lalit.

The Bench is hearing several writ petitions, including that of the Centre 
against the Tamil Nadu Government's move to release the 7 life convicts in the 
1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination case by giving remissions in their sentence 
period. 3 of the convicts (Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan) in the case had 
been given death penalty which was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment.

The Bench is also going into the power of SC and high courts to specify that 
life term meant remaining in the jail till death in some cases and not less 
than 14-30 years in others.

The Bench would also hear Punjab's plea for letting the states grant remissions 
in jail terms awarded to convicts.

The Solicitor General was specifically against the premature release of the 
convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi case as they had a role in the brutal killing of 
the former Prime Minister. The other 4 convicts in the case are Nalini, Robert 
Pius, Jayakumar and Ravichandran.

Further, the state had no power to reduce the sentence as the convicts had been 
prosecuted by the CBI. Also, the executive had no role after the rejection of 
the mercy pleas of 3 death-row convicts by the President, he pleaded.

Appearing for the convicts, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, however, pleaded 
that the Centre had no right to file a writ petition as none of its fundamental 
right had been violated by the Tamil Nadu Government.

(source: The Tribune)