Death sentence of : Supreme Court
Supreme Court commutes death penalty of 15 convicts
Dhananjay Mahapatra,TNN | Jan 21, 2014, 11.17 AM IST
The top court held that delay in deciding mercy plea is a relevant ground for commuting death sentence to life imprisonment.
Death sentence of a condemned prisoner cannot be executed if he is suffering from mental illness and schizophrenia and must be commuted to life imprisonment, the judges said.
Condemned prisoner Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar would benefit from this judgment as the SC disagreed with an earlier judgment which had said inordinate delay would not be applicable to terrorism cases.
SC said every person on death row, whether convicted for multiple murder or terrorism cases, will have a right to approach SC to challenge the rejection of their mercy petitions on grounds of inordinate delay in deciding the mercy plea.
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