Trial courts in India passed 165 death sentences in 2022 – the highest in a single year since 2000, a report by criminal reforms advocacy group Project 39A showed.
This shift has been sharply influenced by the extraordinary sentencing of 38 Muslim men to death in Ahmedabad in a single bomb blast case, representing the largest number of persons sentenced to death in a single case since 2016.
“The population on death row has steadily increased over the years, with 2022 representing a 40% increase in the population since 2015. This increase can be attributed to the large number of death sentences imposed by trial courts and the accompanying low rate of disposal of death penalty cases by appellate courts. In the year 2022, High Courts across India decided 68 matters, while the Supreme Court decided 11 matters this year,” read the report.
From the 68 decided cases by the High Courts involving 101 prisoners, 3 prisoners had their death sentences confirmed, 48 prisoners saw their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment, 43 were acquitted of all charges and 6 had their cases remitted to the trial court, the report showed.
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