21 September 2004 :

It was reported that V. Radhakrishnan, an Indian prisoner sentenced to death for murder, had won support for his freedom from the political establishment through a book of poetry entitled "Pearls from the Prison". The poems ranged from angry verse at US President George W. Bush over the invasion of Iraq to mourning over the ethnic bloodshed in Sri Lanka.
One more autobiographical couplet read: "How can this life be sweet when I am counting my days? Does the rope awaiting my neck know the past, the present and the future?"
Radhakrishnan had won calls for his release from politicians of both the influential DMK party in his southern state of Tamil Nadu and the rival Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India's main opposition.
"It is astonishing that from the heart of a man awaiting the gallows such a poetic outpouring has come forth," senior BJP leader Jana Krishnamurthy said.
Radhakrishnan had already lost an appeal to Tamil Nadu's governor but still had a chance for clemency from Indian President Abdul Kalam.
The inmate was sentenced to death for the mob killing at a courtroom of a man accused of slaughtering the cattle of one of Radhakrishnan's friends.