Death penalty debate rages on as court considers plea of Nirbhaya convict
"The death penalty has no place in the 21st century."
The quote by UN Secretary General Antnio Guterres seems convincing, but over 50 countries still allow capital punishment and gruesome crimes such as the Nirbhaya gang rape-and-murder case serve as a reminder that the issue of doing away with death penalty is not a settled one.
The 50 countries that still allow death penalty include India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, the US, Iran, Japan, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Iraq, Indonesia and the UAE, according to information in public domain.
The US-based Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit organization, states that there are 146 countries that have totally abolished it in law and practice.
India executes criminals only in extreme cases and only 26 executions have taken place in India since 1991, the last being 1993 bomb blast case convict Yakub Memon in 2015. Before that, India had executed 2001 Indian Parliament attack Afzal Guru.
Death penalty is in focus in India with a plea in .