The role of non statutory mitigating factors in capital sentencing in Bangladesh: A critical appraisal

Abstract

This article is an evaluation of the Criminal Court's jurisdiction regarding the criteria-generally in the form of mitigating factors for selecting which defendants are received death sentences and which ones are not. In Bangladesh criminal justice system, sometimes mitigating factors approved by the individual court in a specific case creating an uncertainty due to the non-statutory mitigating factors. To fulfill the purpose of the article we tried to cover most of the death reference cases which published in the different law reports in Bangladesh within aim to show silent role of legislation regarding the sentencing guidelines to manage courts on decision-making processes and due to this how individual judges have continuously struggled with the complexities of capital sentencing system in Bangladesh.