Kerala’s prisons currently house 35 convicts on death row, the latest addition being SS Greeshma (24), who was sentenced to capital punishment by the Neyyatinkara Additional Sessions Court on Monday for the murder of Sharon Raj.

The last execution of a death sentence in Kerala took place on July 6, 1991 at the Kannur Central Jail, when Muthukutty Chandran infamously known as 'Ripper Chandran,' was hanged.

In the absence of a professional hangman, Jail Superintendent NP Karunakaran of Pachahouse, Arayakandipara, personally carried out the execution.

Ripper Chandran, a native of Karinthalam in Neeleswaram, struck fear into the public during the early 1980s. Cloaked in darkness and armed with a weapon, he embarked on a brutal killing spree, earning the grim reputation of being a "messenger of death." Between 1980 and 1985, he murdered 14 people, smashing their heads and spreading terror across Kannur, Kasaragod and Wayanad districts.

Chandran’s reign of terror came to an end due to the testimony of an eyewitness: the son of a housewife in Thaliparamba, Kannur, who had fallen victim to the serial killer. Chandran was later apprehended in Shivamogga, Karnataka. After the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence, Chandran filed a mercy petition to the President of India, which was rejected.

35 convicts on death row in Kerala's prisons
With Greeshma’s recent sentencing, the number of death row inmates in Kerala’s prisons has risen to 35. Among these, the Poojappura Central Prison holds the highest number, with 23 convicts, followed by Kannur and Viyyur prisons, each housing four. The High-Security Prison at Viyyur and the Women’s Prison in Thiruvananthapuram each have two convicts awaiting execution. Four convicts on death row are housed in the Kannur Central Jail.

In a rare instance, the Mavelikara Additional District Sessions Court-I last year sentenced 14 individuals to death for the murder of BJP leader Renjith Sreenivasan in Alappuzha. However, subsequent appeals led to the commutation of the death sentences of four convicts to life imprisonment.

Ratan Bai Jain: Only woman executed in independent India
Since India’s independence, only one woman has been executed. Ratan Bai Jain, a manager at a private clinic, poisoned three women she suspected of having an affair with her husband. Her death sentence, pronounced by the Delhi Sessions Court, was upheld by the Punjab High Court. Ratan Bai was executed at Delhi District Jail on January 3, 1955.