Church seeks end to death rap

NEW DELHI: A Catholic group led by Delhi archbishop Vincent Concessao has appealed to president Pratibha Patil to abolish capital punishment. Officials of the prison ministry under the commission for justice, peace and development of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) called on the president recently and submitted a memorandum seeking to do away with death penalty.

India has 273 people on death row and 44 of them have appealed for presidential pardon, the memo inter alia said.

Citing the recent case of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian on death row in Pakistan for alleged spying, the Church representatives said India should abolish death penalty before it asks other nations not to execute its citizens.

The memorandum said worldwide, 91 nations have abolished executions and 30 more have had no executions in the past 10 years.

“This global trend was confirmed on December 18, 2007, when the United Nations adopted a resolution for a moratorium on executions with a 104-54 vote. Regrettably, India voted with the minority,” it said, noting that the resolution called on nations to impose an “immediate moratorium on executions as a first step toward abolition.”

CBCI spokesman Father Babu Joseph said the Church had been consistently opposed to death penalty “on the ground that every person should be given a chance to repent his wrongdoing and begin anew in life”.

Church officials said the president gave a sympathetic hearing but did not make any commitment.
k_benedict@dnaindia.net