Summary Judge Yogesh Khanna said that "courts cannot turn a blind eye" to such crimes.
NEW DELHI (AP) - A judge Friday sentenced to death the four men convicted in the December gang rape and murder of a young New Delhi woman, ordering them to the gallows for a brutal attack on a moving bus that left the young woman with such severe internal injuries that she died two weeks later.
Handing down the sentence, Judge Yogesh Khanna said that "courts cannot turn a blind eye" to such crimes, saying the attack "shocked the collective conscience" of India.
One of the four, 20-year-old Vinay Sharma, broke down as the sentence was read, his wail filling the tiny courtroom. Sharma was an assistant at a gym and the only one of the attackers to graduate from high school.
The sentence must be confirmed by India s High Court. The men can appeal their case to the Supreme Court, and ask the president for clemency.
The victim s family, along with numerous politicians and government officials, had long called for the men to be executed.
"I am very happy our girl has got justice," said the victim s father, who cannot be named under Indian laws guarding his daughter s identity as a rape victim. The case has been closely followed across India, seen as a reflection on rampant mistreatment of women and the government s inability to deal with crime.
