How did Cadell Jensen Raja escape death penalty?

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite brutally hacking four from his family to death, how did Thiruvananthapuram native Cadell Jensen Raja escape the death penalty?

Supreme Court rulings have repeatedly elucidated that the death penalty be avoided wherever possible, even in cases involving multiple murders.

The Supreme Court had on January 31 directed that the accused be allowed to rectify his mistake. The Supreme Court has also ruled that the death penalty should not be imposed except in extremely rare crimes.

The 262nd Law Commission report recommends banning the death penalty for crimes other than terrorism. The Supreme Court has made it clear that the conclusions reached by the court on constitutional grounds, not the majority opinion of the society, are important and that high constitutional standards must be strictly followed while imposing a death sentence on a person. This was made clear by Justice Kurian Joseph in the Chhannu Lal Verma case in Chhattisgarh.

The Supreme Court clarified in 2022 that life imprisonment without any remission until the last breath can be imposed instead of the death penalty. The court cannot impose a special sentence instead of the death penalty.

However, citing the verdict in the V. Hariharan case, the Supreme Court clarified that in certain circumstances, instead of the death penalty, life imprisonment without any remission can be imposed.

Trial courts should not impose the death penalty which may seem like taking revenge on the accused. The factors that make it possible to reduce the sentence should be collected at the trial stage itself. Trial courts should not impose the sentence based solely on the seriousness of the crime. The punishment should be based on the mental and psychological information of the accused. All this has been clarified in the Supreme Court guidelines.