New Delhi judge sentences four rapists to death

A New Delhi judge has sentenced to death four Indian men found guilty of the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus last year.

The men were found guilty of raping a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in the capital city and injuring her fatally in December 2012, which led to her death two weeks later.

A juvenile offender, also put on trial in the case, has already been given three years in a correctional facility, while a fifth defendant hanged himself in his cell in March.

The victim became a symbol of the dangers women face in India where a rape is reported on average every 21 minutes.

The brutality of the crime sparked nationwide protests and forced the government to overhaul the law on women’s safety.

India has had a paradoxical attitude toward the death penalty in recent years.

Indian courts hand down on average 130 death sentences every year, but only three people have been executed in the past 17 years.