Capital punishment as deterrent under three different jurisdictions – America, India and UK – Do the merits outweigh the underlying the costs.

Author – Pranjal Kumar, Student at Jindal Global Law School, OP Jindal University

Best Citation – Pranjal Kumar, Capital punishment as deterrent under three different jurisdictions – America, India and UK – Do the merits outweigh the underlying the costs, ILE Journal of Equity and Justice, 1 (1) of 2023, Pg. 39-47, ISBN – 978-81-961791-3-7.

Abstract

The capital punishment or the death penalty is considered to be one of the most controversial topics under the contemporary legal sphere of events. International intercourse has made it necessary for every legal body present – whether they derive their authority from legislative/statutory capacity, or a structured regime followed by tradition or by religious authority. The role these legal body’s play provide the manner in which the question of death penalty should be evaluated – especially on the basis of its deterrent effect. The article attempts to first connect the idea of capital punishment and deterrence through a jurisprudential understanding of purpose of law. The jurisdictions that need to be considered for the purpose of the paper need to have heavy legal correspondence. The consideration for the same will be understood through the US, with its constitutional considerations under state and federal system of governance. The attention paid under UK will be done in a similar manner, with major focus upon how UK has developed the concept of death penalty as a punishment. The reflection in India will be two-fold in nature – the constitutional debate versus the judicial interpretation of the death penalty. The merits and costs of the contentions put forth under these jurisdictions will be two-fold – the merits and the costs of the capital punishment in terms of its deterrent effect. The evaluative framework here would be to consider whether or not death penalty has given its own source of justification. The idea is to consider whether the punitive framework of the death penalty has its own justification established without consideration for the scope of reformative justice. Ideals that provide justice to the victim rather than just purely creating a deterrent effect with the state governance will be discovered and concluded in this article.

Keywords: Death Penalty, Capital Punishment, Deterrence, America, United Kingdom, India