15 death row convicts get Supreme Court relief

Following are the cases in which the Supreme Court applied the "supervening circumstances" of delay, insanity, solitary confinement, judgements declared per incuriam and procedural lapses for commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment.
In the case of Suresh (60) and Ramji (45) from Uttar Pradesh who have been in custody for 17 years, the apex court converted their death penalty to life term saying there was a delay of 12 years in disposal of their mercy petitions.
In the case of Veerappan's brother Gnanprakasam (60) and his aides Bilavendran (55), Simon (50) and Madiah (64), the bench of by Chief Justice P Sathasivam and justices Ranjan Gogoi and Shiva Kirti Singh, commuted their sentence from death to life saying there was "unreasonable" delay of nine years in disposing of their mercy plea. All four have spent over 20 years in custody.

Praveen Kumar (55), another death row inmate hailing from Karnataka, was awarded life term by the apex court by modifying his death sentence on the ground of "unexplained and undue delay of 9-and-a-half years" in considering his mercy petition. He has spent over 15 years in prison.
Gurmeet Singh (56), who spent 26 years in prison for murder of 13 members of his family, also got the relief after the apex court observed that there was a delay of over seven years in disposal of his mercy plea.
The apex court also commuted to life the death sentence awarded to a couple, Sonia (30) and Sanjeev Kumar (38) for the murder of several members of the woman's family by them, due to the delay in disposing of their mercy plea.

Death sentence of Sundar Singh was commuted to life by the apex court on the ground of his mental illness. Singh who was in jail since 2004 was found to be suffering from schizophrenia by the prison doctors and psychiatrists.

The death sentence of Maganlal Barela (40), hailing from Madhya Pradesh, was also commuted to life on the ground of his mental illness.
Jafar Ali (48), who has spent more than 11 years in solitary confinement, was also granted relief by the apex court which noted that the President took over seven years in deciding his mercy plea.
Shivu (31) and Jadeswamy (25), hailing from Karnataka and in custody for over 11 years, also got a relief as their mercy pleas took six and a half years to be disposed of.