Supreme Court on Death Sentence in Murder Cases

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Description
This  Digest of all rulings of the Supreme Court on Death Sentence from 1950 till the present has been arranged in terms of the well established doctrine of aggravating and mitigating circumstances relevant to award of the death sentence. The most striking feature that emerges from a study of this mini-encyclopaedia on the death penalty is that there is not a single situation wherein it can be said in advance as to whether death sentence will be imposed/confirmed or not. Every case that awards or confirms death sentence has an opposite ruling in almost identical circumstances which commutes death sentence to life imprisonment. The great saviour in this unhappy and inhumane state of the law is the truly landmark and pragmatic, even humane judgment of the Supreme Court by a Bench of three Judges in Swamy Shraddananda (2) v State of Karnataka. The entire text of this judgment has been reproduced from SCC while retaining the SCC pagination and paragraphing for easy citability in court. It is felt that this judgment stands out in the pragmatism and delicate balancing of competing considerations on the death sentence. It lays down the practical via media of the court prescribing a definite term of imprisonment, commensurate to the nature of the murder committed. The Supreme Court in a number of its very recent judgments has started following Swamy Shraddananda (2), since it provides a solution which so satisfies the conscience.
The Digest will be immensely useful to the entire criminal justice system in the administering of the death sentence in a more coherent, consistent and fairway.
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Contents
Contents of Case Law
1.    General principles for imposition of death sentence
2.    Aggravating and mitigating circumstances
3.    Commutation to improsonment of specified term
4.    Enhancement of the imprisonment to death sentence
5.    Sentence hearing/Confirmation proceeding
6.    Review petition against death sentence
7.    Clemency petitiion before Executive against death sentence
8.    Other issues
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