Let us do away with the death sentence
Jul 13, 2003
THERE are many reasons why the death sentence has a host of opponents all over the world. But despite an overwhelming barrage of petitions by both individual abolitionists and human rights bodies such as Amnesty International, many countries, including some in the so-called “developed world†use
The Other Side of the Coin
With Paul Waibale Senior
THERE are many reasons why the death sentence has a host of opponents all over the world.
But despite an overwhelming barrage of petitions by both individual abolitionists and human rights bodies such as Amnesty International, many countries, including some in the so-called “developed world†use it as a method of punishing those presumed “guilty†for certain prescribed crimes.
Although the European Union has abolished he death penalty, several states in the world’s most advanced country, the United States of America, still have the death penalty in their law. Keeping the death penalty, it seems, has nothing to do with the civilisation or backwardness of any nation.
Consequently, the inherent dangers in capital punishment are universal although they are more abundant in the Third World than in the developed nations.
For Christians, the first ground against the death penalty is in the Ten Commandments. “Thou shall not kill†offers no exemption for any person, the State or any situation. The first murder, according to Bible, was committed by Caine when he killed his brother Abel. But God did not sentence Caine to death for that murder. He merely banished him from the Garden of Eden.
In Uganda, the idea of abolishing the death penalty was discussed in the course of drafting the l995 Constitution in the Constituent Assembly. The Assembly was almost evenly balanced on the issue, but the retentionists managed to scrape through with a small majority.
Today there is a new twist in the campaign to abolish the death penalty in Uganda, which has a historical tint, in that it has never happened anywhere in the world. A group of 23 lawyers, of whom 22 operate under the legal firm of Katende, Ssempebwa and Company Advocates, have been commissioned by 412 condemned prisoners on the death row to petition the Constitutional Court and challenge the death penalty as unconstitutional.
According to John W. Katende who is leading the team of 23 lawyers, the team was inspired to take up the petition purely for the purpose of averting a situation where the possibility of hanging innocent people is so high. In his view, the only way to avoid that situation would be to abolish the death sentence irrespective of what offense the accused might be convicted of.
“It is better to let 99 guilty murderers off the hook than hang one innocent person,†he argued.
But that is not the reason why the death penalty is claimed to be unconstitutional. The actual ground is that Article 24 of the Constitution stipulates that “No person shall be subjected to any form of torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.â€
Nobody in his right mind can dispute the fact that execution by any method is a cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment which is inevitably surrounded by circumstances that amount to torture. You have only to imagine the state in which a man such as Eddie Mpagi lived for l8 years on the death row, expecting to be executed any moment. And after all, as was discovered in his l8th year on the death row, he was innocent.
The man in respect of whom he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death was alive and as fit as a fiddle, So here is an innocent man who escaped the hangman’s noose merely by the stroke of chance.
In any case, the execution itself is a ghastly exercise. On occasions, the victim’s head is plucked off and blood spills all over the place, covering the walls, the floor and even the executioners. According to a former executioner, execution is horrifying, inhuman and disgraceful to both the victim and the executioner. Many executioners get mentally derailed and have to be dismissed from service.
Consequently, the death penalty, apart from subjecting he condemned man to torture it also subjects to the executioner, who merely does his duty, to very unsavoury consequences.
But despite that state of affairs, it is argued that the Constitution recognises the death penalty since it specifically provides that nobody shall be deprived of his right to life except by a verdict of a competent court or tribunal.
In my view, that argument if defused by Article 44 of the Constitution which categorically states “Not withstanding anything in this Constitution, there shall be no derogation from the enjoyment of the following rights and freedoms: (a) Freedom from torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.â€
One interesting aspect of this petition is that it does not have the government or anybody as its target. In fact, the Commissioner for Prisons, Mr Joseph Etima, led a team of prison officers who advised the Constitutional Review Commission that the death penalty should be expunged from Uganda’s statute books.
With Paul Waibale Senior
THERE are many reasons why the death sentence has a host of opponents all over the world.
But despite an overwhelming barrage of petitions by both individual abolitionists and human rights bodies such as Amnesty International, many countries, including some in the so-called “developed world†use it as a method of punishing those presumed “guilty†for certain prescribed crimes.
Although the European Union has abolished he death penalty, several states in the world’s most advanced country, the United States of America, still have the death penalty in their law. Keeping the death penalty, it seems, has nothing to do with the civilisation or backwardness of any nation.
Consequently, the inherent dangers in capital punishment are universal although they are more abundant in the Third World than in the developed nations.
For Christians, the first ground against the death penalty is in the Ten Commandments. “Thou shall not kill†offers no exemption for any person, the State or any situation. The first murder, according to Bible, was committed by Caine when he killed his brother Abel. But God did not sentence Caine to death for that murder. He merely banished him from the Garden of Eden.
In Uganda, the idea of abolishing the death penalty was discussed in the course of drafting the l995 Constitution in the Constituent Assembly. The Assembly was almost evenly balanced on the issue, but the retentionists managed to scrape through with a small majority.
Today there is a new twist in the campaign to abolish the death penalty in Uganda, which has a historical tint, in that it has never happened anywhere in the world. A group of 23 lawyers, of whom 22 operate under the legal firm of Katende, Ssempebwa and Company Advocates, have been commissioned by 412 condemned prisoners on the death row to petition the Constitutional Court and challenge the death penalty as unconstitutional.
According to John W. Katende who is leading the team of 23 lawyers, the team was inspired to take up the petition purely for the purpose of averting a situation where the possibility of hanging innocent people is so high. In his view, the only way to avoid that situation would be to abolish the death sentence irrespective of what offense the accused might be convicted of.
“It is better to let 99 guilty murderers off the hook than hang one innocent person,†he argued.
But that is not the reason why the death penalty is claimed to be unconstitutional. The actual ground is that Article 24 of the Constitution stipulates that “No person shall be subjected to any form of torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.â€
Nobody in his right mind can dispute the fact that execution by any method is a cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment which is inevitably surrounded by circumstances that amount to torture. You have only to imagine the state in which a man such as Eddie Mpagi lived for l8 years on the death row, expecting to be executed any moment. And after all, as was discovered in his l8th year on the death row, he was innocent.
The man in respect of whom he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death was alive and as fit as a fiddle, So here is an innocent man who escaped the hangman’s noose merely by the stroke of chance.
In any case, the execution itself is a ghastly exercise. On occasions, the victim’s head is plucked off and blood spills all over the place, covering the walls, the floor and even the executioners. According to a former executioner, execution is horrifying, inhuman and disgraceful to both the victim and the executioner. Many executioners get mentally derailed and have to be dismissed from service.
Consequently, the death penalty, apart from subjecting he condemned man to torture it also subjects to the executioner, who merely does his duty, to very unsavoury consequences.
But despite that state of affairs, it is argued that the Constitution recognises the death penalty since it specifically provides that nobody shall be deprived of his right to life except by a verdict of a competent court or tribunal.
In my view, that argument if defused by Article 44 of the Constitution which categorically states “Not withstanding anything in this Constitution, there shall be no derogation from the enjoyment of the following rights and freedoms: (a) Freedom from torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.â€
One interesting aspect of this petition is that it does not have the government or anybody as its target. In fact, the Commissioner for Prisons, Mr Joseph Etima, led a team of prison officers who advised the Constitutional Review Commission that the death penalty should be expunged from Uganda’s statute books.