The death penalty must go

The failure of the State of Tennessee in the United States to execute Christa Pike on September 30, has once again brought the death penalty under the scanner. Pike, now 50, was sentenced to death for a murder committed when she was 18. After two doses of pentobarbital were administered, she remained alive, breathing for more than an hour before being rushed to hospital. She later regained consciousness and was discharged. The state suspended the remaining executions scheduled for 2026 and ordered an independent review. When a government cannot guarantee even the execution it claims to have perfected, it must confront a deeper question, does it have the moral right to take a human life at all?

The issue is not whether the crime was heinous or whether the victim deserves justice. The murder of an innocent person demands accountability. But justice must be distinguished from vengeance. A civilised society must punish crime firmly without abandoning the principles that distinguish the rule of law from retribution.

The greatest danger is an irreversible mistake. Courts depend on evidence, witnesses, investigations and human judgment. Each can fail. Consider the case cited in an earlier account of an impoverished rag-picker imprisoned for 11 years after a police informer’s false accusation. The informer later confessed to the deception in a suicide note, and the innocent man was released. Imprisonment can be corrected, though the lost years can never be restored. An execution cannot be undone. If fresh evidence establishes innocence after the sentence has been carried out, neither an appeal nor a presidential pardon can bring the victim of judicial error back to life.

Nor is the death penalty a proven guarantee of deterrence. If the fear of execution alone could eliminate murder, societies retaining capital punishment would have solved the problem long ago. Dr Samuel Johnson’s observation about pickpockets continuing their trade in a crowd gathered to witness an execution remains a powerful illustration, the spectacle of punishment does not necessarily prevent crime. Effective policing, swift investigation, certainty of conviction, education and social reform are more constructive instruments of prevention.

Capital punishment also raises troubling questions of equality. The poor, the illiterate and the socially disadvantaged often struggle to secure competent legal representation. Wealthier defendants can afford experienced lawyers to challenge evidence and pursue appeals. As former Chief Justice Y. V. Chandrachud observed, the ability to obtain mercy should not depend on education or wealth. Justice Krishna Iyer similarly warned that the harshest punishment often falls upon society’s most vulnerable.

The cruelty of the Tennessee episode adds another dimension. A punishment intended to end life resulted instead in a failed procedure, prolonged suffering and a medical emergency. The precise causes require investigation, but the incident exposes the risks hidden behind claims that lethal injection is humane.

India retains the death penalty for the rarest of rare cases, with courts required to give special reasons for imposing it. Yet safeguards cannot eliminate every possibility of error, bias or unequal access to justice. Life imprisonment, with rigorous review and appropriate safeguards for public safety, offers society a means to punish dangerous offenders without making judicial mistakes irreversible.

The strength of justice lies not in its power to kill, but in its ability to protect society without sacrificing humanity. The state must defend victims, hold offenders accountable and prevent future crimes. But it should not claim an infallibility that no human institution possesses. As Shakespeare wrote, Death is a necessary and inevitable end and will come when it will come. Let us not hasten it through the fallible hands of the state. The noose that failed in Tennessee should become a warning to the world, it is time to replace capital punishment with justice that is firm, fair and humane.

(The writer is SP Jails (Retd), and former President of All India Prison Officers Association)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KV Reddy

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