The capital punishment for Kasab leaves me very confused. That guy came to India all prepared to die, then how can giving him a death sentence act as a deterrent to the terrorists? They'll just call him a martyr, and he will perhaps make an example to all the hot blooded but confused young men, much more than the others from 26/11 whose names we don't know. As my friend Senthil says - "It's applying a common man's law to an uncommon man, almost like sentencing a fish to drown." It barely counts as punishment towards such a heinous crime.
I was also given the argument that it will allow the families of victims to make peace. Which makes me think (and it's at 5 am now), how our ideas of justice are perverse it's always been about tit-for-tat, albeit structured and rule based.
Though we throw words like Gandhigiri and "Hate the crime but not the criminal", most people perhaps don't actually believe in it.
As I said, it leaves me confused.
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Historically capital punishments used to be inhuman - breaking wheel, boiling, slow slicing, crushing by elephants, burning, etc. But public and media outcry reduced the severity and we are at hanging now. Hanging seems like instant death (what the guy anyway was prepared for) but the earlier methods were more painful, slow and fear inducing (he hadnt signed up for those). By moving away from the earlier methods, the law once built to deter future criminals fails to have same effect after being mellowed down. In conclusion, the law was not written for such a criminal
Hmm, good point.
The purpose of law was to keep the society up and running, and create generic rules for the first std deviation. Was perhaps never made for the exceptions.
Though, this can bring about peace, maybe.
Aside - before they give the lethal injection, they still swab the area and use sterilized syringes.
Let us not be misled by the side effects this might have and instead look at it objectively.
The man showed no remorse while killing other humans. He has not shown any remorse after for their deaths. The trial was fair and the verdict is death. Period.
Ashwin - I never doubted the fairness of trial. And, the verdict is death, yes. Death ends it all, he'll probably never have a chance at feeling remorse.
My doubts are whether justice is about revenge.
right you are. we confuse justice and revenge. the law is supposed to be above society and its subjective views, and yet.. in this case, it might be impossible to have an objective stance, for at the end of it all, a society is taking a human life... it is differentiated from a mob only by its own perspective, no?
meanwhile, i wonder if someone asked kasab if he felt any remorse...
"Nip the evil in the bud", "Do the crime, pay the time" or so they say. I think justice like everything else is a perspective. In this case, taking a logical perspective Kasab should not become a bargaining chip ala Kandahar. Zimple
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