Highest number of death row prisoners in two decades; no execution approved by Supreme Court in 2024
The number of crimes is increasing day by day across the country. Innumerable cases are pending in the courts of the country which have not been settled yet. These topics are often discussed. But amidst all this, another serious issue has come to light. The number of criminals sentenced to death across the country has also reached a worrying level, but they are living without punishment. This has been published in a study.
By the end of last year, 564 prisoners sentenced to death (Capital Punishment) were lodged in jails across the country. This number is the highest in two decades. The Supreme Court did not approve a single death sentence for the second consecutive year in 2024. This detail was given in the latest report of the Criminal Justice Program Project 39-A of the National Law University, Delhi.
According to the report, till December 31, 2024, lower courts across the country sentenced 139 people to death. Of these, 87 (62 percent) were sentenced in murder cases and 35 (25 percent) in cases of murders related to sexual crimes. Earlier in 2023, 59 people were sentenced to death in cases of murders related to sexual crimes and 40 in cases of other murders.
564 prisoners in India were living on death row at the end of 2024, the highest in over 2 decades. Access our latest Annual Statistics Report here: https://t.co/KWIpkQy3Ko pic.twitter.com/r031R5uuQ9
— Project 39A, National Law University, Delhi (@P39A_nlud) February 11, 2025
The Supreme Court heard six appeals in 2024. The death sentence of five prisoners was converted to life imprisonment, while one was acquitted.
The National Law University Report stated that the number of convicts sentenced to death has increased steadily since 2019. This number was 378 in 2019, which increased to 404 in 2020. After this, it increased to 490 in 2021, 539 in 2022, 554 in 2023 and 564 by the end of 2024.
Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of 34 people sentenced to death in 2024. 20 people were sentenced to death in Kerala and 18 in West Bengal. No one was sentenced to death in Delhi, Tripura, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir. The number of women prisoners sentenced to death was 17 in 2024.
