SC has not upheld death penalty in 3 years: report, Pg14

Key Highlights:

• The Supreme Court has not upheld any death penalty in the last three years [2023-2025].
• In 2025, the Supreme Court acquitted 10 prisoners on death row, the highest in a decade.
• Lower courts issued 128 death sentences in 2025 despite growing judicial skepticism at higher levels.
• As of December 31, 2025, India had 574 prisoners on death row, including 550 men and 24 women.

Detailed Insights:

• Between 2016 and 2025, sessions courts handed down 1,310 death sentences across India.
• High Courts confirmed only 8.31% of the 842 death sentences they reviewed, acquitting 285 and commuting 411.
• Errors at Sessions Courts are leading to wrongful imposition of death sentences and wrongful convictions.
• Nearly 95% of death sentences in 2025 were imposed without compliance with guidelines for psychological evaluations and mitigation hearings.
• The average time spent on death row before acquittal was over five years, with some prisoners waiting nearly a decade.
• There is a growing trend of using life imprisonment without remission as an alternative to the death penalty.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Death Penalty: Capital punishment; a sentence of execution for a crime.
• Acquittal: A judgment that a person is not guilty of the crime with which they have been charged.
• Commutation: The reduction of a criminal sentence, such as reducing a death sentence to life imprisonment.