More on the death penalty...

Here's a Hindu article on the death penalty in the Dhananjay Chatterjee case. Slightly disappointing article because it doesn't give you any extra stats or information. However, it does make the interesting point that the death penalty allows no room for restitution, which after should be one of the aims of the justice system. But then again, as a number of readers have pointed out on Jivha's blog that Chatterjee is not just being punished for rape, but for murder as well...and that too for a 14 year old girl. This is a girl whose life is gone forever, and whose family's silence says a lot about what they feel.

I'm not sure about the legal point it makes about Chatterjee's guilt. Even his family so far hasn't really denied that he guilty, or could have raped and killed the schoolgirl. Nor has Chatterjee himself vigorously protested his innocence. So really in this the argument about his guilt isn't valid. However, it could be applied more widely when guilt is not conclusive.
Jivha has an interesting post on why the death penalty should not be applicable for rape. All I will add to this is my earlier point about a) convictions becoming harder to secure, thereby making life even harder for rape victims b) the general bias in the judicial system.

But then again, you read about cases like this and you really wish the persons responsible to be wiped off the face of the earth.

P.S. I thought I'd add a link to this article about the hangman Nata Mullick. There have been a number of articles on him but this is ironically very tragic indeed. Somehow the elaborate ritualistic preparation to "murder" a human being sickens me a bit.