To be Hanged till death...

Two days back one of my friend pinged me on the gtalk, commenting on my gtalk status which said: “Forget Modi, Kasab is de new hot topic...". He was wondering if my next blog post would be on Kasab.

I was just thinking about the case and by 4:30 p.m. that day I got the news that Kasab has been found guilty and faces the Death sentence. I thought about it for sometime and actually felt an anger within me which said that “yes, Kasab should be hanged or made to die in the most horrible way and all others facing the death sentence should also be hanged with immediate effect”.

Instantly I opened up a window and started my search on Google and typed: “different types of execution”. Clicked on one of the headings: Top 10 Modern Methods of Execution- Listverse. After reading the methods and the way the executions are carried out, I could feel the goosebumps on my skin. How can a family or a witness watch a person dying or made to die?

Lethal injection, electric chair, gas chamber, single person shooting, firing squad, hanging, beheading, guillotine, stoning, garrote. Each method was explained in detail and the pictures were attached. Thankfully, those images were blocked at my office. In few of the methods/countries, the executions must be witnessed by the family members as well. This must be horrible.

I am not saying that no one should be given the death sentence but after reading this, for sometime I thought that death sentence is the most insane punishment. But I guess, those who face death penalty must be interrogated thoroughly and then given the sentence. Its like, mind wants the criminals to be hanged till death and heart says no, death sentences must be abolished from the system. This reminds me of my visit to Andaman's “kala paani Jail” where I saw the gallows. There was nothing. It was a very small underground room where the bodies were kept after the prisoner was hanged and has died. It was empty obviously- no blood stain, no body, no smell. But it was suffocating to be standing there. In hanging, the executor would have to visit the prisoner and take his measurements to prepare the noose. The size of the rope and the length should be such that the prisoner die instantly. What if he makes some mistake in this measurement? In lethal injection, after the first dose the convict must die, if not then second dose and still not, then the third and final dose. How about him lying on the execution table alive after the first dose, waiting for the second one?

There are methods in which there are more than one executor. In some, multiple executors are kept behind the curtain so that no one comes to know who actually executed the convict. But the actual executor would surely know that he was the one. How about the guilt that builds up in him? In some methods, multiple executors are kept and all of them are told to press the trigger for execution at the same time so that none of them knows who has actually executed the convict. But what about other methods, where there are normally one executor? I have read a story in my school days of such an executor, who had to execute some one and after the execution only he came to know that the convict was his own son.

In case of terrorists, who themselves say that they have committed the crime, the countries still keep them in jail for years and years on the grounds that they can give some vital information or the lack of ample evidences, until some other terror attacks by his friends to take revenge or get him freed. In such cases, I believe, there is no need to keep them in jails and waste the country's time, money and resources after him. In five years, whatever information they might be having they must have told and if they had any intention to lead a normal life, they would have changed. But if not, then keeping them in jails forever will never help. So, again, mind says, Hang them till death. But...

What can be the alternative to death penalties?

I have written above about what I have searched. I know many of you might try to search for the same on Google. Don't do this if you don't want your day or mood to be spoiled. I had spoiled my mood that day.