Considering the serious problem with rapes in India this will not be the last time it is used.

I heard an interview on Radio 4 by an Indian woman who was also gang-raped (not by the same people) and her opinion was she didn't want them to get the death penalty. Not through any idea of mercy - she didn't want them to have a quick way out. She wanted them to sit in jail for the rest of their lives, having time to contemplate how their actions had ruined their own lives more completely than they had ruined hers, because she knew that eventually she would recover and be the person she was before but they were doomed for the rest of their days.

I've rarely heard anything quite like it. She was utterly polite, utterly logical, quite positive about her life and yet at the same time utterly, utterly cold about the punishment they should get. It was both awe-inspiring and kind of scarey.

It also eliminates the issue of convicting the wrong men.

Which is a possibility if torture was used for the confessions as some have claimed.

If that is the case there could be a miscarriage of justice. Railroading four potentially innocent men is not a good thing for the judicial system.