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Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, convicts on death row in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. When the President rejected their mercy petitions on August 3, 2011, it was communicated to the public and was covered in the media.-THE HINDU ARCHIVES

Breach of procedure

The haste, secrecy and violation of established procedure that marked the execution of a human being at its mercy hardly befit a democratic government
YUG MOHIT CHAUDHRY
Activists of the Peoples Union for Democratic Rights protest against the death sentence of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, in front of the NHRC headquarters in New Delhi in August 2004.-SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

Hanging on theories

Data published by the government over the years belie the claim that the death sentence deters murder more than life imprisonment does.
YUG MOHIT CHAUDHRY
Justice Thurgood Marshall (left) of the U.S. Supreme Court, who believed the death penalty to be unjust, and Justice Potter Stewart, who held that facing the death sentence was as unusual and cruel as being struck by lightning.-

Uneven balance

Examples abound of a pattern of confusion, contradiction and aberrations in judgments in death penalty cases.
YUG MOHIT CHAUDHRY
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