With the death penalty in sharp focus on Wednesday over the case of Yakub Memon and the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi case, The Hindu hosted an online debate about capital punishment.
The key participant was Alok Prasanna Kumar from Vidhi Legal Policy in New Delhi. Amit Baruah, The Hindu ’s Resident Editor in New Delhi, moderated the discussion. Also participating were Rukmini Shrinivasan, The Hindu ’s National Data Editor, and Krishnadas Rajagopal, The Hindu ’s legal correspondent.
There was concern among participants whether as a nation we were focussing too much on retribution. “We need to completely rethink our existing criminal law and what the purpose of our criminal law is supposed to be,” Mr. Kumar said. “It should not just be about the death penalty and should attempt at making our criminal justice system, as a whole, more humane.”
The full transcript of the debate is available on http://thne.ws/DebateDeathPenalty
