
I was watching the movie "LUCK" yesterday and I came to know about this rule in India... that a criminal, who is announced capital punishment, while being hanged survives for some reason, as little as a slip of rope or loose knot, should not be hanged again. And added to that he is not only pardoned from the gallows but also condoned of his crime and set free.
Can anybody confirm about this rule??? I tried to search over the internet but could not find it. Also please let me know if such a rule exists, whats the reason behind it??
Logically I think, if it is true, it is because once the rope is around the neck of the person and the black cloth over his face shows him the inevitable darkness ahead, for at least once he realizes that the crime he had done was brutal and inhuman and how it the victim(s) would have suffered. A feeling of remorse takes over him.
My search over the internet took me to some of the execution videos that are being circulated over the internet as a campaign against Iran. It says, Iran is hanging people ruthlessly, they are strangulating rather than hanging, they are killing teenagers below 18 years of age, etc etc.
Death is never pleasant, its always painful. Using electric chairs, or lethal injections or tightening the noose, whatever method is argued to be the most humane method, still it is painful.
The point is as a normal human being we are bound to feel compassionate when we see death, or more aptly killing, even if it is the execution of the most notorious and dreadful serial killer, Ted Bundy. And such videos serves as a good tool for people who wants to abolish capital punishment. Common notion is that the killer is always bad and the killed is always helpless. But it should always be remembered that the person who is executed is a criminal, no....a harsh, ruthless criminal (otherwise the punishment would be less severe).
India also has a rule, which says Capital punishment should be given to a criminal in "rarest of rare" cases which gives a little more confidence for people to commit crime.
Anyways please answer my query...thanks....