INDIA. HIGH COURT COMMUTES STUDENT'S DEATH SENTENCE

the Andhra Pradesh High Court, India, commuted to life imprisonment the death sentence of Yelchuri Manohar, a 24 year old student convicted of murdering his classmate. The Mahila Sessions Court at Vijayawada had sentenced Manohar to death on August 4 but the lower court's order had to be confirmed by the high court. Manohar, 24, a student of Sarada College in Vijayawada, had stabbed to death classmate R. Srilakshmi in a classroom on June 21, 2004 after she had reportedly spurned his advances. Srilakshmi was waiting in the classroom for her turn at a test when Manohar approached her, pulled out a butcher's knife and stabbed her in the head and neck as other students watched in horror. Manohar, who had walked out of the college after committing the crime, was arrested in Chennai a week later. Public Prosecutor Nageswar Rao said the high court converted the death sentence to life imprisonment so as to give Manohar a chance to reform himself.