Capital punishment? Really?

Let me share how I start my day everyday lately. I wake up in the morning, grab the newspaper and skim through the news. In the last month, the newspaper that I read has reported at least one case of sexual violence and mostly the cases of rape.

Not to forget the case of Seema and her friends who suffered devastating acid attack. With the rise of inhuman acts like these, the activists have started voicing for the death penalty for the perpetrators of incidents like these. These voices really force me to think – has the society become so cruel that we need to end the lives of criminals to end crimes?

The opinion of the people whether the culprits should face capital punishment or not is largely debated. Let me walk you through what capital punishment really is: Capital punishment or the death penalty is a legal process whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime.

Capital punishment is given to a person who has been involved in serious and inhumane crimes such as murder, rape, treason, war crimes etc. Similarly, traditionally it has been practiced by most societies as punishment for criminals, and political or religious dissidents. It is the biggest or the most dangerous punishment any criminal can possibly receive and is given with the belief that there would be no other offensive mistakes that a criminal would make.

The debate is whether we should incorporate capital punishments in Nepal or not. It is very normal to see people reacting to the incidents of the acid attack’s case and demanding for the death of the culprit. But my question is, will hanging a person to death be able to reduce crimes like this?

I, by no means, have sympathy for the culprit in the case. But I don’t want to see these criminals have an easy death. Seema will have to live her entire life carrying the scar on her face, in the same way the culprit must live with the guilt of committing the crime until he dies. Early death in the form of capital punishment will just allow him to escape from the guilt that he must live with. Our justice system should be able to create the scar in the hearts of culprits so that they have to live their lives with guilt. It is the biggest punishment that a person can get – living a life of a dead person until he dies.

We’re giving birth to criminals in our own societies. The discrimination, the hatred and intolerance that are increasing in the Nepali society are the root cause of many crimes. We need moral education rather than capital punishment.

Just a reminder that death penalty has been argued to be illegal by many international organizations and humanitarians. More than 98 countries had already abolished it formally thereby under no circumstances a criminal is sentenced to death.

Since capital punishment or death penalty is the punishment in which a person is hanged, electrocuted or injected till death, it seems it is not so viable since it also reflects the inhumane and animalistic characteristics of the judiciary involved for the end result.

Similarly, capital punishment is the worst violation of human rights because the right to life is the most important, and judicial execution violates it without necessity and inflicts on the condemned a psychological torture because a person suffers a lot of physical and mental depressions because to wait from the moment of verdict to the moment till execution is to wait for death, and since a person has such a situation then he would surely panic and burn mentally every moment. An execution is not a simple death and everybody has the right to life and mental freedom, so executing a person means violating his rights.

There may be arguments that the criminal violated the human rights of other people, so he must be punished. Definitely, the criminal must be punished, but not through the death penalty. If a dog bites, we don’t go and bite the dog.

Our focus should be on the robust judicial system where the victim doesn’t have to wait long for justice. Justice delayed means justice denied. We should have the provision for fast-track court that processes the cases related to gender-based violence, rapes, or acts like acid attack. The laws should be made strong, the criminals can be sentenced to jail for a long time with heavy fines. The problem with us is that we take too long to give justice to the victims. As a result, the pain that the victim goes through amplifies.

I repeat that ending the life of a criminal doesn’t end the crime. Crimes are deeply rooted in the society and we need to identify these roots and focus more on that.

Muna is a member of Girl’s Advisory Board and Youth Activist Leadership Council.