Thread by @ShaliniNair13

#DeathForChildRapists a poor deterrent: Presently only 3% convictions, 94% accused know victims in child rape cases indianexpress.com/article/india/…

Of the 64,138 child rape cases in courts in 2016, 1,869 cases — less than 3%— ended in convictions. The poor conviction rate shows that death penalty - which comes at the sentencing stage, post-convictions — will mean little to a vast majority of the victims

Of the total cases of rape of women & children before the police in 2016, in over 94% cases, the offender was known to the victim. Death penalty will deter victim from reporting rape if the offender is close family member

Justice Verma panel, formed after Dec 2012 Delhi gang rape case, held that “death penalty would be a regressive step in the field of sentencing & reformation” & there is “considerable evidence that the deterrent effect of death penalty on serious crimes is actually a myth”

Death Penalty India Report by National Law Univ interviewed 373 of the 385 prisoners on death row in India to conclude that it is “disproportionately imposed on vulnerable persons along the axes of socio-economic parameters”. 76% are from backward classes & religious minorities