How convictions are handled - USA versus India

A week back an article was reproduced in Deccan Chronicle from the NYT on the death sentence carried out on Troy Davis in Georgia, USA - ‘Silence from the Courts’.

Thought provoking the article is on not whether Death Sentence is still acceptable in evolved democracies (and even in evolving democracies).  As put by various Supreme Court Justices in India, as long as Death Sentence is in the books, it also has to be considered.

The article was thought provoking on how 2 vary accomplished persons do think in bizarre ways to justify their view point.  Reading the article was akin to reading a ‘cheat sheet’ on what should not be done while considering an appeal against a convict.  I am writing on about it or rather picking a fight because there is a new found mental virus of similar nature fanning around back home in India, in the death sentences awarded to

• the Khalistan terrorist Bhullar by Punjab, 
• the 3 LTTE terrorists Perarivalan, Santhan and Murugan in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination by Tamil Nadu, and
• the Kashmiri terrorist Afzal Guru by Jammu and Kashmir.

Let us see what the article talks about: (or what I have differences with):

1. the absolute radio silence — of the United States Supreme Court, which, as the nation watched and waited, did nothing for 203 minutes past the scheduled execution time. Or at least nothing anyone could see.
2. the court knew for several days that the execution was scheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. It knew that it would receive a last-minute petition for a stay and that Georgia would not carry out the execution until it spoke.
3. for over three long hours America and the world are told absolutely nothing, is a violation of that basic bargain. It is a show of power without reason and of authority without accountability.
4. For 3 hours and 23 minutes the foremost lawyers and pundits in the country tried to guess at what was going on in Washington, while the Supreme Court’s Web site offered no information about the matter.
5. while the court went dark for over three hours, a man waited to learn whether he would live or die, as did his family. The family of Mark A. MacPhail Sr., the Savannah police officer whom Mr. Davis was convicted of killing, waited for closure.

Let us just see whether the points raised by them hold water:

On the question of silence:  What do they expect?  A running commentary like the ball-by-ball coverage offered during every cricket match in ESPNCricinfo?  Or updates every 2 minutes on a special Facebook page or Tweets every 5 minutes? 

I don’t know how many judges take part in such judgements, but hypothetically, if there was a division in the first 60 minutes, say a 5-3 against execution and after 1 more hour it turns into 5-3 for execution and after another 93 minutes it had turned unanimous for execution, what would these advocating the idiocy of ‘updates’ have done?

• accepted the verdict? 
• Or start questioning how 3-5 against turned into an unanimous ‘for death’ decision?
• Or question why the court did not stop after first 60 minutes?

On Court knowing for several days and doing nothing:  This is the point which actually made my rear pucker, which impelled me to blog about the article.  What do they advocate?  That the Supreme Court knowing that a clemency appeal would be filed on 21st Sept, should have met/consulted within (before) and should have arrived at a decision before the execution time (or even before the clemency appeal)?
Do they mean that the Court should judge before hand?  Isn’t it called Prejudice?

On the 3 hour delay and consequences:  The convict, his friends and family and the victims friends and family have lived with the crime and its consequences from 1989 - almost 22 years and one month to day from the crime; another 203 minutes added to it - is it such a big deal?  I don’t think so.

What if it was a medical condition?  My own question is what if the dead man, OK, let me leave alone Troy Davis.  Using his name in a hypothetical situation is acceptable in India, but I guess it may not be in the USA. 

So what if a fictional man Tray Dias had been suffering from a critical medical condition for last 22 years - assume some type of rare cancer or heart condition and which had accumulated a whole lot of followers and well wishers for his cure.

Let us assume that with much fanfare and brouhaha Tray Dias is being put on the operating table under a finest surgeons on the land to try and cure his condition, with the clear cut prognosis that he, Tray Dias, will either succumb and die or will walk out a new, free man.

Under the conditions, if the surgery or whatever cure they were attempting was to finish by 7 PM EDT, but the procedure had necessitated carrying on for another 203 minutes, would they ask for regular updates?

What poppycock!

And there is a lesson for the suddenly humanitarians turned politicians of all hues and even the Supreme Court of India in this incident. 

• The crime of which Troy Davis was accused occurred in 1989
• He was convicted, accorded death sentence by the lower court in 1991
• His appeal was turned down by the Georgia Supreme Court in 1993
• His habeas corpus petition was declined in 2000 by Georgia Supreme Court
• His appeals in Federal Courts were all rejected repeatedly and execution dates were set in July 2007, Sep 2008, Oct 2009 and finally in 2011
• The US President declined to intervene in the matter on 21 Sep 2011

So, there is no question that ‘inordinate delay on the death row’, on which a whole lot of people are clamouring for clemency, offers any excuse for remission of death sentence.  That by itself does not count.
So hang the terrorists!  What are we waiting for?

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