INDIA. HIGH COURT SETS ASIDE DEATH PENALTY OF MURDER ACCUSED

in a landmark judgment, a division bench of the Bombay High Court at Goa, India, set aside the death sentence awarded to Soiru alias Sarvanand Gaonkar, an accused in a murder case reported at Cuncolim on June 28, 2004, and acquitted him of the crime. Soiru had been sentenced to death for the murder of Rayu Faldesai, and his wife, Saraswati Faldessai.
Counsel for the appellant, Ms Shanti Fonseca, brought to the notice of the court that the sessions court judgment suffered from serious infirmities. She also pointed out that the judgment was based on probabilities, which does not call for an order of conviction. Fonseca also pointed out that the death sentence could not be upheld because it did not fit into any of the guidelines as set out by the Supreme Court for death penalty cases. The sessions court had nowhere examined that the accused was beyond reformation and that he was threat to society, she added.