On February, 8 a two bench Supreme Court heard the appeal of Mulla and others against the death penalty for murdering five people, including one woman, in cold blood about 14 years ago. The victims were working on fields when these men came armed and demanded that they be paid Rs. 10000. Being poor agricultural workers the victims had no money so one person was sent back to the village to bring the money but the villagers could not raise the sum. So the accused took the victims with them, slit their throats and left them to die. The trial court sentenced the four accused to death and the High Court upheld the sentence. The Supreme Court reduced the sentence to that of life. In a long reasoned judgement the judges held that the death penalty should be awarded only for the rarest of the rare cases where special reasons existed for such punishment. While accepting the murder was in cold blood the judges gave reasons for mitigation which included age of the defendants, family, length of incarceration already suffered and poverty. The judges held that a criminal who commits a crime due to economic backwardness is most likely to reform. Not once did the judges mention the victims or their families and what they suffered. These were also desperately poor people who could not raise a lousy Rs. 10000 to save their lives and were murdered while working hard to provide for themselves and their children. What effect the death of a parent will have on the children is hard to imagine. Regarding the length of a life sentence the judges said that it is upto the respective state government to suspend, remit or commute sentences which is chilling. That explains why Manu Sharma, convicted murderer and son of a Haryana politician, was allowed out on bail in the middle of his sentence. Seems that the entire justice system is falling over with sympathy for killers. The victims meanwhile cry out for justice. What a tragic joke.