Court to hear pleas of 30 death row convicts

KAMPALA - High Court Judge Wilson Masalu Musene is set to hear mitigation by 30 death row inmates seeking to have their sentences reduced on Thursday.

Represented by Justice Centers Uganda (JCU) through its Prison Decongestion Programme, the convicts are beneficiaries of the 2003 Constitutional petition of Susan Kigula & 417 others that challenged the death penalty.

The Supreme Court ruled that it was wrong to sentence someone to death without mitigation (hearing their side).

It ordered the return of all pending death row appeal cases to the High Court for only mitigation of sentence.

A number of death row convicts have previously been released due to their long stay in prison and others had their death sentences reduced to life imprisonment.

Death row inmates whose sentences were already confirmed by the Supreme Court must be executed within three years and if not, the death sentence be deemed converted to imprisonment for life without remission - which is 20 years.