ABOLISHING THE DEATH PENALTY

Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a historian and former governor of West Bengal, asks fundamental questions about the death penalty in this book. Is taking another life a just punishment, or an act as inhumane as the crime that triggered it? Does having capital punishment in the law books deter crime? His conclusions, based on in-depth analysis and the opinions of jurists, human-rights scholars and criminologists, are unequivocal. Gandhi argues that capital punishment, cruel in its operation, ineffectual as a deterrent, unequal in its application, liable to be in error—and incorrigibly so—leaves the need for retribution unrequited, and simply makes society more bloodthirsty.

Aleph Book Company, 156 pages, Rs399