Annual Death Penalty Report, 2022:
Project 39A, a group associated with the National Law University recently released a report called the Annual Death Penalty Report, 2022.
- According to the report, the number of death penalty prisoners in India increased to 539 in 2022. It was 490 in 2021.
- India has 539 death-sentenced prisoners as of 2022.
- This is a 40% increase as compared to the numbers in 2015
- UP had the highest death sentences followed by Gujarat and Jharkhand
Key Findings:
- 3% of death rows were judged by trial courts.
- SC pronounced 11 death penalty judgments and High Courts in the country pronounced 68 death sentences
- Appellate courts pronounced the least number of death sentences
- Of all the crimes, sexual violence received the maximum death penalty. Almost one–third of the capital punishments were for sexual violence
- In Gujarat, 51 people were sentenced to death by the Sessions court
- In UP Sessions Court: 32
- In Jharkhand sessions court: 17
- No death sentences were pronounced in the courts of J&K, Delhi, Telangana, and Manipur
- Two out of every 165 death sentences were pronounced on women
