SC commutes man's death penalty to life term in murder case

The Supreme Court has commuted to life term the death sentence awarded to a man for killing his wife and five children on the ground of "unexplained delay" of four years by the Madhya Pradesh government in forwarding the mercy petition of the convict to the Union Home Ministry.

The apex court said there was a delay of almost five years in deciding the mercy petition as the state authorities kept sitting on it and did not forwarded it to the home ministry for four years.

Observing that a mercy petition is the "last hope" of a person on death row, a bench headed by Justice N V Ramana said that convict Jagdish had filed a mercy petition before the jail authorities on October 13, 2009, but his plea was forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs on October 15, 2013.

"The mercy petition is the last hope of a person on death row. Every dawn will give rise to a new hope that his mercy petition may be accepted. By night fall this hope also dies," the bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta