The Square Circle Clinic helps prisoners on death row — uncovering systemic failures in investigation, defence and sentencing even as high courts and the Supreme Court increasingly overturn capital punishments
Ramesh was accused of murdering his wife and four young daughters. After cops claimed he “confessed”, a lower court sentenced him to death. Twelve years later — years spent by Ramesh inside a prison cell — the Supreme Court acquitted him, calling the purported confession “suspicious” and uncorroborated.
For Ramesh, a poor, uneducated labourer from Uttar Pradesh, the real punishment was the process. He was moved from one hearing to another without him ever seeing the inside of a courtroom. And he neither knew the lawyer assigned to defend him, nor did he have the foggiest about who testified, or what they said.
For Ramesh, a poor, uneducated labourer from Uttar Pradesh, the real punishment was the process. He was moved from one hearing to another without him ever seeing the inside of a courtroom. And he neither knew the lawyer assigned to defend him, nor did he have the foggiest about who testified, or what they said.