Abstract

Death penalty or capital punishment is state-sanctioned punishment of ending the life of the accused person by giving him death sentence. The act towards the accomplishment of death penalty is known as an execution. There is one more term; “on death row” which means a prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is condemned. In serious offences Indian Penal Code as the provision of giving life imprisonment but death penalty is given in cases falling under “rarest of rare” category. The aggravated crimes such as rape, murder, genocide etc are considered as heinous crimes. Death penalty is given in different ways as per the laws of different countries. In India, hanging is considered as least painful death for the criminals. Executions can be carried out by hanging, shooting, stoning, electrocution and gassing. Many countries have abolished death penalty for ordinary crimes. Fifty-four countries have retained the capital punishment. Death penalty is a controversial topic and it invited many heated arguments and debates. Till now India has not abolished death penalty. Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits the capital punishment. In addition to this, the Protocol 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights also favored the view of abolishing death penalty. This is applicable only to those countries that have signed and ratified it. It excludes Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan. There are any pros and cons of it, the detailed analysis has been done in this research paper. The eight non-binding resolutions for execution have been formed to abolish the same by United Nations General Assembly.

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