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" MITIGATING SENTENCING IN VARIOUS MITIGATING SENTENCING IN VARIOUS JURISDICTIONS: A CONSIDERATION FOR THE OFFENDER'S REHABILITATIVE POTENTIAL By Muhammad Sher Abbas, Additional District and Sessions Judge/ Senior Research Officer, Lahore High Court, Lahore While facing punishment, every person has a right to know as to why and how a judge awarded him an increased or decreased sentence in view of the relevant aggravating or mitigating circumstances. It is pertinent to note that social scientists are generally more inclined to avoid severe punishments like death penalty of the offenders through mitigating sentencing instead of winning a freedom by disproving the guilt of the offender, in that, the overwhelming evidence of culpability against a criminal often establishes his guilt as an inevitable conclusion. To prioritise liberty of a defendant on invalid grounds instead of exploring rehabilitating potential of preventing even the death penalty is a long notorious practice.1 It is a common phenomenon that since inception of the trial, the defence often does not stress on antecedents of the defendant involved in an offence so as to introduce dynamics of all encompassing strategy and fails to make the jurors and the court conversant with the ordinary course of his conduct in terms of his relationship with the family, friends, acquaintances and enemies. There are a wide range of mitigating factors which help a court to determine reasonable sentence depending upon the information as to the offence and the offender. This article delineates the scope of mitigation which can be explored in various forms including even aggravating nature of serious crimes across every jurisdiction in cases proven beyond doubt. The aggravating factors may include a criminal act involving…