At least 111 death sentences pronounced by courts in 2019; UP, MP, Karnataka account for 52% of sentences

Courts across the country sentenced at least 111 people to death in 2019 with Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka topping the list, accounting for more than half of the capital punishments awarded during the year.

The number of death sentences could be higher as West Bengal has not provided data in this regard to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which has recently released the Prison in India 2019 report. The NCRB report has pegged the death sentences at 121 by including 10 reported by West Bengal in 2017 in its latest report.

Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of death sentences last year at 27 followed by Madhya Pradesh (17) and Karnataka (14). Together, these three states account for 52.25% of the death sentences.

Rajasthan is another state which has a higher number of death sentences awarded in 2019. However, no executions took place during this period across the country.

According to Amnesty International, an NGO, at least 106 countries have abolished capital punishment while India continues to have death penalty in its statutes.

Its latest report on death penalty released in April this year showed that there at least 2,307 death sentences in 56 countries last year compared 2,531 reported in 54 countries in 2018. It also recorded 657 executions in 20 countries in 2019, the lowest number of executions that Amnesty International has recorded in at least a decade, which is a decrease of 5% compared to 2018.

The NCRB report showed that there were 400 prisoners on death row and languishing in jails at the end of 2019 and this included 279 people who were awarded capital punishment in the previous years.

Maharashtra has the highest number of prisoners in condemned cells with 52 followed by Uttar Pradesh (49), Madhya Pradesh (37), Bihar (29) and Karnataka (28). West Bengal's 37, the figure for 2017, is also part of the 400 mentioned in the report.

Sixty-eight death sentences were commuted during last year of which 17 came from Madhya Pradesh followed by Maharashtra (14), Rajasthan (10) and Uttar Pradesh (6). Capital punishment of two convicts in Karnataka was also commuted during this period.

The report also showed that 1,031 convicts, including 41 women, could not leave the prisons after their sentence was completed, as they could not pay the fines imposed on them.

Of this, 98 people were in jail for more than five years for not paying the penalty imposed on them while 23 are behind the bars for three to five years. Fifty-nine people have spent two-three years in jail for the same reason.

During 2019, 1.04 lakh convicts were also released after they completed their sentence.

When it comes to undertrials, there were 5,011 prisoners who spent more than five years in jail, as their trial has not concluded. Of this, 2,142 were in Uttar Pradesh while Karnataka has 124 such people.