Capital Punishment?

The Kasab verdict and the debates following it led me to think about an essay that I wrote when I was in school and it was about Capital Punishment. I remember raving about things like death penalty not being a solution, where is the scope for reform and so on and so forth without actually realizing or understanding the context in its true sense. I also remember using some cheesy quotes like "An eye for an eye makes every one blind".

Now, when I turn back, I realize that my views have not changed much and I still concretely and genuinely believe that the state cannot and should not take over the life of any individual - especially in a manner which is irreversible. When we talk about evidences and enough proof to hang a person, are we so sure that there may not be any evidence which comes into light much later after the punishment has been executed.

The Times of India came up with a very strong news headline; "Kasab gets what he gave : Death". They also add that the newspaper is not in favor of death penalty but it is important that terrorists get death penalty so that we can avoid future instances of Kandahar - where deadly terrorists had to be released. Also, terror being unlike other crimes.  A very genuine argument, I must admit. We all know for sure that Kasab was a part of the terror plan, but we also know how the young men end up as terrorists.

I saw the scroll on TV which said that Kasab did not show any signs of remorse. Of course, why should he? One, he knows that he will receive nothing less than death - so why remorse . Two, He was not supposed to end in this situation - he has been prepared for death when he set his foot on Mumbai - so its not something new to him.

I am still not very clear about the discussion related to terror and punishment , so I do not want to say something with my limited scope of vision currently - I will keep that for sometime when I think I can be eloquent about it.

The Constitution gives us a 'Right to Live'. Suicide is a crime - so we do not have the right to take our own life. So, is it right for the state to take control over someones life especially in the scenario where we have seen how flawed and painful the investigation system is!

When I was about to land in Singapore, the flight attendants made an announcement that anyone carrying more than 0.5g of drugs are subjected to mandatory death sentence. The very thought was scary because it is so easy to be framed for drug traffic - what if a smart bloke slips it into your bag? The punishment is irreversible and I heard that over 400 people were executed in 10 years for drug trafficking, which is a very scary number. The argument here could be that very soon the country became totally drug free and there was huge drop in the number of crimes in the country. Yes, the fear of punishment does work in enforcing the law. Even then, I really doubt whether all the 400 executed were genuine cases - even if one was innocent and was  framed, the state has taken away the 'Right to Life' of one of its citizens. When we look at it statistically, it is a very small number. However, for that 1 person and the family, the trauma and the loss of life would have been so intense.