India follows the 'rarest of the rare' principle for the death penalty. But there are no clear guidelines on what is meant by 'rarest of the rare', leaving it too subjective. Arguments against the death penalty range from a person's right to life, inherent biases in the legal system, to the difficulty in gathering information on mitigating circumstances. However, the question that needs to be answered first is: does capital punishment actually work as a deterrent?