Explained: Why death row convicts are hanged before sunrise

New Delhi: In a major development, a Delhi court on Tuesday (January 7) issued the death warrant against all four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case. The court ordered that all four convicts should be hanged at 7 am on January 22 at the Tihar jail.

The death warrant was issued by Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora, who said the convicts can use their legal remedies within 14 days. The four convicts - Mukesh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Singh and Pawan Gupta - were produced before the court through video conferencing.

While the debate continues over whether capital punishment is justified or not, there is an interesting aspect associated with it.

Why are those on death row executed before sunrise?

We all have seen in films that whenever any prisoner is executed, only a handful of persons are present to witness the act.

Among them are a judicial executioner, a magistrate or his representative, a doctor and some policemen.

And there are several reasons why executions are carried out before sunrise in India.

- Jail authorities have to focus a lot of energies on carrying out execution and they wind up the same before sunrise so that it does not affect their daily schedule. Requirements pre and post execution include medical tests and noting of procedures in multiple registers.

- The body also needs to be handed over to the prisoner's family post execution in time so that they can conduct the last rites the same day.

- Executions are carried out early in the morning so as to ensure that the person on death row does not have to wait for long on a day he is due to be hanged and to prevent him from undergoing further mental trauma.

- Hangings are carried out early in the morning in order to prevent sudden reactions from society as most people are asleep when the development takes place.