To kill or not kill....

For the past few months I've been thinking 'should death sentence be abolished?'. Well to be true, I have been thinking why death sentence should still be continued while many countries have abolished it. In principle, I'm against Death penalty. I detest it. One reason for this is that I love my life. So do everyone else, I believe.

Apart from my love for a life in any form, one more reason why I oppose death sentence is that killing a life serves no purpose. Yes, the crimes some commit deserve the harshest punishment. But is death penalty really harsh enough. I don't think so. Indeed death penalty offers an exit way from the tough path of transformation of an individual. Punishment is not an end unto itself. Its just a means to the end of transformation. I cases a person proves too hard to crack, he or she can be contained by many other measures like solitary confinement under strict supervision and security.

Still one may find all this concern over a gruesome killer or a terrorist to be absurd. But one reason why this concern is not absurd is that our judiciary system is still not fool proof. It still has many loop holes and pit falls. It is still possible that a real culprit can escape and an innocent person may be prosecuted and proven guilty. No, I'm not writing this in the context of Afzal's conviction. We've had enough debate over that issue. And I'm convinced that he is guilty. But the thing is this case alone doesn't ensure that our judiciary is so tight and strict.

Even if everyone everyone convicted is really guilty, justice is not being delivered on equal terms to all. Take the case of Abu Salem, he was arrested in Lisbon, Portugal. Though we had some substantial evidence of his involvement in some nefarious activities in India, Portugal, when given that evidence, refused to hand him over to us until our authorities gave them assurances that we won't hang him. And so do many countries who have abolished death penalty. Imagine the situation if Dawood Ibrahim too turns in some of those countries. How can justice be delivered depending on where a person, the guilty is arrested? Will we be able to say in such cases, that justice is not served as the criminal is not hanged?

Some may argue that we need not care about egalitarian principles regarding such criminals. But then, what goes round also comes round. So we need set right our law. We need to abolish capital punishment.

Well, if u feel u have some thing to say regarding this issue... please post your comments below.