Project 39A’s report Deathworthy explores the impact of the death penalty on the mental health of those receiving it and why many death row convicts have a fragile mental state to begin with. On this episode of The Suno India Show, our reporter Suryatapa Mukherjee speaks to Maitreyi Misra, lead author of the report and founding member of Project 39A at the National Law University. This episode also includes the inputs of Dr Pratima Murthy, Director of NIMHANS, and Dr Sanjeev Jain, Professor of Psychiatry at NIMHANS, who spoke at the report’s release event. 

We trace how childhood trauma and mental illness can culminate into a death sentence later in life. How our legal system fails to detect mental illnesses and disabilities of convicts, and how our prisons fail to cater to the mental health of death row inmates. 

Show notes:

Detailed Analysis of Section 84 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 
Section 30 in The Prisoners Act, 1900 
328, 329, 330 CRPC |Procedure in case of accused being lunatic 
SK Nair vs State Of Punjab on 5 November, 1996 
State Of Orissa vs Kalia @ Debabrata Maharana on 19 February, 2008 
India joins nations which don’t execute mentally ill convicts