Saturday, February 23, 2013

Justice KT.Thomas view on death penalty

I was going through few of the comments and except on person (kkg from Bangalore) everyone was very critical of Justice Thomas. It will look that all those who comments are very law abiding citizens and do not commit any crimes at all. I can bet many of those at least if not all will not hesitate to cross a red signal if policeman is not watching or go by the no entry road without any feeling that they are breaking law. It is the very same people who throw all garbage on the roads. They don't have any compunction in breaking laws. When it comes to kill someone judicially everyone shouts Yes Yes Kill him , Kill him. Many times someone is punished on circumstantial evidence. It is not fool proof. If someone goes to a house where a murder has happened and knocks on door and getting no response comes out of gate and is observed by someone, naturally he will be suspect. If he was a frequent visitor to that house and his finger prints were on some door or balustrade or things like that it will be confirmed. If the man has gone to pay some debt and he returns with money as the door had not opened and if the money is found on his person and also there is some record that the murdered man had withdrawn a large amount on the same day the visitors fate is sealed as per circumstantial evidence. The truth could be something else. Someone who had some enmity with the murdered man had gone earlier and had some altercation and killed him and finding the other man dead run out of the house which no one noticed. The money the murdered man had taken from bank must have been given to someone else earlier in the day. In such a case due to circumstantial evidence the wrong one will get punished. It is not due to any callousness on the part of the judge. Only because all the evidence points against the innocent victim. If such a person is sentenced to death, what a big miscarriage of justice it will be. If he is punished for life, at least the truth may be found out later. But once he is killed what is the use of truth coming our later. In the case of the so called Rajiv Killers, their participation is very very nominal. Buying some cell for making bomb and like that. They did not have directly any involvement in the actual murder. To treat them as murderers and kill them judicially is a very grave injustice. So too the Veerappan aids. They are village folks with no criminal records. They were recruited by Veerappan to assist him. To judicially murder them is also a great mistake. It can never be a case of 'rarest of rare'. And the irony is that those who used Veerappan to amass wealth are roaming the country as great patriots and leaders. Mr.Justice Thomas is hundred percent right and no one without previous criminal history should be awarded death penalty. It will be a great injustice to humanity.