The latest issue of Frontline (hitting the stands tomorrow) has a cover story on death penalty in India. The issue contains articles dealing with the following matters:
- Cover story focusing on the recent appeals of 14 judges to the President of India to commute the death sentences of prisoners where the Supreme Court judgements affirming the sentence of death were subsequently declared per incuriam by the Supreme Court.
- Deterrence and the Death Penalty: an analytical discussion (featuring unpublished research) of the claim that the death penalty deters murder more than life imprisonment.
- Article arguing that the Supreme Court’s death penalty jurisprudence is inconsistent, arbitrary and discriminatory.
- Death Penalty and Terrorism
- An account of the first case in India where a person sentenced to death by the Supreme Court was subsequently declared a juvenile.
- An account of recent developments in the USA resulting in a change of position on the death penalty by the American Law Institute, the premier body of jurists in America who had drafted the original death penalty statutes.
- Article focusing on the Innocence Project in the USA where many death row convicts have been exonerated.
- A survey of international trends on the use of the death penalty.
Excellent reportage by the Frontline on this issue. I will also say that this is the best magazine in India at the moment.