There is a popular maxim – justice delayed is justice denied. But what happens when judgments are given in haste? In a majority of cases related to minor’s rape or murder-rape of minors, trial courts have convicted and sentenced the accused within a few days, a report has revealed.
Of the 18 cases of minor rape where death penalty was imposed, in 13 (72%) of the cases, trial courts took fewer than two days to decide on conviction and sentencing while the remaining four cases were decided within a week. Minor-rape murder cases went in a similar vein. In a total of 106 such cases, in 63 or about 60% cases, trial courts took the decision of holding the person guilty and sentencing them to death penalty in less than two days. In 33 cases, the process was completed within a week.
National Law University Delhi’s Project 39A analysed 304 death sentences across 221 cases in its report ‘Death penalty sentencing in India’s trial courts 2018-2020’.
Of the death sentences analysed, there were 125 cases of murder-rape of a minor and minor rape. In these 15% of the cases were decided in less than a week while 28% cases were decided in less than 3 months.
This data calls into question sentencing practices in lower courts and is an analysis of the 2019 amendments to the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (Pocso) act that introduced the death penalty provision as punishment for those found guilty of aggravated penetrative sexual assault of a minor.
In cases of murder or rape-murder of an adult, the courts took a two-day period to impose death penalty in half the cases. For instance, of the total 23 cases of murder involving sexual violence with an adult, 13 (56%) of the cases were decided within two days while of the total 126 murder cases, the courts imposed death penalty in less than two days in 64 or 50% of the cases.
According to report co-author Zeba Sikora, the short gap is an indication of the mechanical manner in which people are sentenced to death.
“Little or no time between these two phases of a trial means that the accused person’s legal team has not been given sufficient time to present mitigating circumstances relating to the accused. While this is a problem across the board in death penalty cases, data from trial courts shows that the problem is more acute in cases involving sexual offences against children. Simply put, this means that many people and more so, persons convicted for sexual crimes against children, are sentenced to death without being given the opportunity for an effective sentencing hearing,” Sikora said.
The report also points out that judges dismissed the alternative of life imprisonment and sentenced the convicted to death ‘by default’ in nearly 30% of the sentences involving minor rape.
Reasons for this haste range from public pressure after a heinous crime, as well as more scrutiny of the judicial process because of the frenzy around it. The report shows that this scrutiny might be adversely affecting the convicted and the judicial system.
Earlier, research by Project 39A had revealed that fewer than 5% of the death sentences imposed by trial courts between 2000-15 were confirmed up the judicial ladder, and around 30% ended in acquittals upon appeal which indicates that decisions on levying capital punishment might be taken under pressure.
Sikora was optimistic as issues of death penalty sentencing have been referred to a Constitution Bench.