NEW DELHI — Four men convicted of a brutal gang rape were sentenced
Friday to die by hanging, a decision met with satisfaction on the part
of the victim’s parents and triumphant cheers from the crowd outside the
courthouse, where some held up makeshift nooses and pictures of hanging
bodies.
Harish Tyagi/European Pressphoto Agency
Activists reacted to the sentencing outside the Saket District Court on Friday.
Roberto Schmidt/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA crowd gathered outside the Saket courthouse in New Delhi on Friday.
The country was riveted by the story of the woman, who died of her
injuries two weeks later, and tens of thousands of people flooded the
streets to demand tougher policing and prosecution of sex crimes.
But until the last minute it was unclear whether this would lead to
death sentences in a country where liberal and populist impulses have
strained against one another for decades, reserving the death sentences
for “the rarest of rare cases.” News of the decision was met with a wave
of jubilation on the street outside.
“This is the beginning of freedom for Indian women today,” said Raman
Deep Kaur, 38, a cosmetologist. “Today we are free, because these men
are going to be killed.”
It is far from clear, however, that the four men will be executed in the near future.
India has liberal appeal laws and death sentences are routinely followed
by years of motions to the Supreme Court and the president. Sadashiv
Gupta, a defense lawyer for one of the men, said he was confident the
sentence would be commuted to life in prison.
“I met with my client and I told him, ‘You are going to get the death
penalty, take it in stride and don’t panic,’ ” Mr. Gupta said. “I think
he shall not be hanged.”
During the trial, defense attorneys invoked the “rarest of the rare”
language laid out in a 1980 Supreme Court decision that overturned a
death sentence. One cited the words of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of
India’s independence movement: “God gives life and he alone can take it,
not man-made courts.” They also invoked mitigating circumstances, such
as the young age and poverty of the defendants, or the fact that they
had been drinking, undercutting the notion that the crime was
premeditated.
But Judge Yogesh Khanna clearly rejected those arguments, saying this
crime embodied “the rarest of the rare,” and invoked the possibility of a
larger wave of violence against women.
“In these times when crimes against women are on the rise, the court
cannot turn a blind eye to this gruesome act,” he said, according to
reporters in the courtroom.
At this, one of the defendants, Vinay Sharma, broke down in tears and cried loudly.
A. P. Singh, who defended two of the men, called the decision
“completely unfair” and said it had been made under intense political
pressure at a moment when Indian leaders are looking ahead to
parliamentary elections next spring.
“I will contest this case until the last moments of my life,” he said.
Defense arguments were drowned out by cries for execution – including
from the victim herself, who before her death told a court official that
her attackers “should be burned alive.” Protesters have congregated
regularly outside the courthouse, chanting “Hang the rapists,” and on
Friday they turned their wrath on the defense attorneys, forcing one to
rush from the crowd.
Rosy John, 62, a housewife watching the furor outside the courtroom this
week, said her only objection to the death sentence was that it was too
humane a punishment.
“After death, they will get freedom,” she said. “They should be tortured
and given shocks their whole life. They have made so many people
suffer, including their own families.”
Polls show that Indians remain ambivalent about using the death penalty,
with 40 percent of respondents saying it should be abolished, according
to a survey by CNN, IBN and The Hindu, a respected daily newspaper.
Among the vocal opponents of using it in this case were a number of
women’s rights groups.
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