The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Agonising wait for the final call

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Tuesday, Jan 29, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Agonising wait for the final call

Staff Reporter

Karnataka has 15 persons on death row

BANGALORE: With the Karnataka High Court last week reserving the verdict on Umesh Reddy, he will now be one among the 15 prisoners from the State in Hindalga Jail in Belgaum, who have been handed death sentence by the trial court. Their appeals for commuting the death sentence are pending either before the High Court of Karnataka or the Supreme Court.

While the last death sentence from the State confirmed by the Supreme Court was on November 7, 2005, Reddy’s appeal against the death sentence before the Karnataka High Court resulted in perhaps the first split verdict in recent years in the judicial history of the State.

With one judge having confirmed the death sentence on Reddy, another judge had differed, saying that imprisonment for life would be suitable punishment for Reddy. The split verdict had resulted in the case being referred to a third judge for his opinion.

Reddy along with the rest are now lodged in the Belgaum jail as it is here that all those sentenced to death are traditionally kept. Incidentally, the last hanging in the State was in 1983, and in Bangalore in 1962. Till date, 46 persons from the State have been sent to the gallows. The last hanging from the State confirmed by the Supreme Court was of Shivu and Jadeswamy of Badriyyanahalli. They had raped and murdered an 18-year-girl on October 15, 2001. Officials of the Department of Prisons say that when a sessions court pronounces the death sentence or when the High Court confirms it, the prisoner is immediately transported to the Hindalga Central Jail where he is segregated from the other inmates.