Death row prisoners in India are facing inhumane treatment [summary, PDF], according to a two-part report [part one, PDF;
part two, PDF] released Friday by the Death Penalty Research Project at the National Law University in Delhi [advocacy website]. The Research Project interviewed 385 death row inmates in the country and found [Guardian report] consistent narratives of unfair trials, inadequate communication with legal representation, taunting behavior from corrections officers and rampant torture. The study also acknowledged the trend of death row inmates having primarily low socioeconomic standing and many belonging to the lower castes of society, suggesting systemic bias that should be addressed. The Research Project stated that the study is not meant as an argument for abolition of the death penalty, a discussion that would need to look at factors wider than this report. Rather, they hope to broaden the scope of conversation to examine more than just the nature of the crime that led to the sentence. The report states that while this is usually the focus, there are many problems with treatment that the inmates face that still need to be addressed as a matter of humanity.

In August the Law Commission of India [official website] has recommended [report, PDF] that the death penalty be abolished [JURIST report] as a mode of punishment for all crimes except terrorism. This was the first time the Commission had addressed the death penalty since 1967, when they recommended the retention of the death penalty in India. The Supreme Court of India [official website] has upheld the death penalty in the past, though they have restricted it to “the rarest of rare cases, to reduce the arbitrariness of the penalty.”