There are over fifty kinds of crimes in India, for which there is legal sanction to sentence the guilty to death. We hear about the death penalty mostly in the context of terror crimes, multiple murders, or sexual assaults that horrify us, and assume that capital punishment must be reserved for the most heinous, the rarest of the rare cases. But, in fact, across the country, 730 people have been sentenced to death in just the last 5 years. That’s 1 person every 2.5 days. Here are the numbers across states:
Do we have the courage to know those whose DEATH we seek?
Do we care to know about them beyond the CRIME they are accused of?
Are we certain they are GUILTY?
Do we know if they had a FAIR trial?
Do we even believe they have the RIGHT to a fair trial?
Is our sense of JUSTICE hinged on someone, just anyone, paying for a crime?
Whose BLOOD is on our hands?
Today, almost 600 people are locked up in Indian prisons awaiting their execution. That’s 600 men and women who cannot speak to us. 600 inmates who cannot talk to most others in jail, reach out to the press, or often even address the court. Things are so precarious that the name of almost every prisoner quoted on this site has been changed for their safety, and that of their dear ones.
CAPITAL LETTERS is an attempt to unlock our minds and meet some of these people. To get a glimpse, through their letters, of what it is like to live in that dark space where death is the only certainty. Letters filled with trauma, memories, information, helplessness, loneliness, remorse and desperation. Letters that sometimes, amazingly, carry a glimmer of hope, joy, or laughter. Letters often written by other inmates on behalf of those who cannot read or write. So that through their words and silences, we may hear their voices. Loud and clear.
