KOCHI: Asafak Alam, awarded death penalty in the rape and murder of a five-year-old child on Tuesday, is the 21st death row convict currently lodged in prisons across the state. He is the second person after Arun Sasi, the convict in the 2013 Pazhayidom murder case, to receive the death sentence this year.
Of the 20 death row prisoners other than Alam, nine are in the Poojappura Central Jail in Thiruvananthapuram, while four each are in the Kannur and Viyyur Central jails. Three convicts are in Viyyur High-Security Prison. The prisoners include Nino Mathew, the convict in the 2014 Attingal twin murder case and Ameerul Islam, who was convicted for Jisha’s murder in 2016.
Officials said a death penalty does not necessarily mean all convicts will face the gallows as most get their sentences commuted by higher courts. “When the trial court orders a death sentence, the HC has to confirm it. The convict can then file an appeal in the Supreme Court seeking a review, and later file a mercy petition,” said a top police officer.
The SC had earlier commuted the death sentences of Govindachamy, convicted in the rape and murder of 23-year-old Soumya, as well as Antony who was convicted in the Aluva massacre of 2001.
26 executions so far
As many as 26 capital punishments have been carried out in Kerala to date, the last one being in 1991.
Serial killer Ripper Chandran, who bludgeoned several people to death, was the last person to be executed in the state. He was hanged at Kannur Central Prison in 1991.
Azhakesan of Balaramapuram, a sorcerer found guilty of murdering toddlers after performing black magic, was the last person to be hanged in Poojappura Central Prison in 1978.
Only Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram central jails possess the facility to execute capital punishment – to be hanged till death.