Kerala High Court appoints 'mitigation inspectors' in two death penalty cases

Kochi: In a first of its kind action, the Kerala High Court ordered mitigation studies into the death sentence references of Nino Mathew, convicted in the Attingal twin murder case, and of Muhammed Ameer-ul-Islam, convicted in the Dalit law student murder case.

Generally, mitigating circumstances in death sentence cases are considered after the persons are convicted, or after their conviction is confirmed by the appellate court.

However, a division bench of Justices Alexander Thomas and C. Jayachandran decided the commencement of mitigation studies for Mathew and Ameer-ul-Islam even before the hearing of their appeals had begun.

The two convicts were sentenced to death by trial courts and their appeals against their conviction and sentence, as well as the references to confirm their death sentence, are currently pending before the High Court, when the fresh direction came.

The court also appointed two mitigation investigators associated with Project 39A, a research and legal aid centre at the National Law University, Delhi to assist the court with the process of sentencing, particularly to arrive at a conclusion on whether the cases warrant death penalty for the convicts.

The court pointed out that if mitigation studies are conducted only after the conviction is affirmed by the appellate court, then there will be a lot of unnecessary delay in the administration of justice.

The two cases placed before the Bench were to confirm the death sentence awarded to Mathew, who was convicted by a trial court in the 2014 twin murder case in the state capital district and a similar death sentence awarded to Islam by a trial court for the rape and murder of a Dalit law student of the Ernakulam Government Law College in 2016.