Ghana parliament has voted to abolish the death penalty.
Background:
Ghana currently has 170 men and 6 women on death row whose sentences will now be replaced by life imprisonment. The last execution took place in 1993. The West African country last carried out an execution in 1993 with death sentences handed out for murder and treason.
23/55 African countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes. Ghana's parliament voted to amend the country's Criminal Offences Act removing the use of capital punishment for crimes including murder, genocide, piracy and smuggling. It is a step towards embracing international human rights positions.
Constitutional rule:
July 1993 there was a return of constitutional rule under civilian government of elected President Rawlings. National Public Tribunal was effectively abolished under the 1993 Courts Act. It allows appeals from tribunals to higher courts and judiciary from High Court Judges was given responsibility.
In the same year, the government created a permanent Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice. The aim of this was to investigate and remedy human rights abuses. In 1996 there was a report that there was 292 prisoners remaining under the sentence of death and therefore called for the abolition of the death penalty. Prisons were recorded as having harsh conditions, overcrowded and insanitary.
Ghana Sentencing:
The prison service said 172 prisoners are currently on death row. Last year 7 people were sentenced to death in Ghana, but none were executed. 30 years later Enoch Jengre (program officer of Ghana's legal resource centre) commented that "no human being or institution should have the right to take the life of another".
Ghanaian judges continue to impose death sentences mainly in murder cases. Despite concerns related to circumstances of trials carried out and alleged miscarriages of justice. There are violations of the right to a fair trial under Article 14 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The law:
Execution has been the mandatory sentence for murder in Ghana. Under the Criminal Code of 1960 treason, murder, attempted murder in certain circumstances and genocide are punishable by death. Under the Armed Forces Act 1962 the death penalty may be imposed for treason and mutiny by military personnel in time of war. Under the 1960 Criminal Procedure Code execution may be by hanging or firing squad. The Ministry of Interior in 1996 said that the last hanging in Ghana was in 1968 and executions since has taken place by a firing squad.
The bill to amend the Criminal Offences Act was put forward by MP Francis-Xavier Sosu and had the backing of the parliament Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. The death sentence can still be given for acts of high treason. However, campaigners have cautioned that the country's constitution would have to change for a complete removal of the death penalty. The country's president Nana Akufo-Addo needs to sign the bill into law before it comes into force.
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was ratified by Ghana in 1990. It obliges states which are party to the convention not t impose capital punishment for offences committed by people below 18 years of age. In 1997,1998, and 1999 growing number of governments supported resolutions adopted by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights towards the abolition of the death penalty. Commission Resolution 1999/61 called upon states to progressively restrict the number of offences, establish moratorium on executions and make available public information with regard to imposition of the death penalty.
International Law:
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1976 asserts the right to life and right to not be arbitrarily deprived of life. Obliges states who have not abolished the death penalty to impose it only for serious crimes.
1984 UN Economic and Social Council adopted safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights facing the death penalty for countries which have not abolished the death penalty. Imposing the death penalty only when the guilt of the person charged is based upon clear and convincing evidence which leaves no room for an alternative explanation of the facts.
The United Nations General Assembly has called on all states progressively to restrict the use of the death penalty with a view that it will be eventually abolished. 1989 adoption by General Assembly of Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aims at the abolition of the death penalty and clearly recognises the international community to eliminate the use of capital punishment.
Under the Statute of the International Criminal Court adopted in 1998, Ghana ratified in 1999, the death penalty is excluded from the punishments which the court will be authorised to impose. Jurisdiction over grave crimes such as crimes against humanity, including genocide and violations of the laws of armed conflicts. Establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 1993 and 1994 - United Nations Security Council excluded the death penalty for these crimes.
Recent death penalty cases:
1995 Nana Kwame Nkoah, a traditional ruler, and three others were sentenced to death for murder. 1996 there was at least 2 death sentences passed for murder in separate cases. He was a popular musician and was sentenced to death by the High Court in Accra. The Court of Appeal had rejected his appeal in 1998 and he was waiting again for the Supreme Court to decide.
February 1999, 4 men were sentenced to death following a long-ran treason trial before a Special High Court in Accra. Sylvester Addai-Dwomoh, Alexander Kwame Ofei, Kwame Ofori-Appiah and John Kwadwo Owusu-Boakye had been charged with plotting to overthrow the government in 1994. A fifth person was acquitted. Prosecution alleged that the first four accused had approached soldiers on guard at the state radio station in Accra and tried to involve them in a plot to overthrow the government.
Re-trial for treason after more than 6 years in prison was Karim Salifu Adam. He was a former army sergeant and member of the opposition New Patriotic Party arrested in May 1994 and detained incommunicado for nearly 2 months. The prosecution alleged that he had recruited young men for military training in the neighbouring state of Burkina Faso with the aim of overthrowing the government. He said the evidence against him was fabricated by the security police and was only charged with treason as he refused to implicate the leading opposition politicians and neighbouring governments in a fictitous coup plot. In July 1997 he was brought before the High Court without his lawyers being informed and the court ordered a full re-trial on the grounds that no judgement had been reached. February 1998 the Supreme Court had rejected a defence application against a retrial.
Death Penalty as a violation of Human Rights:
The death penalty violates the fundamental right of 'the right to life'. Executions by the state reinforce the culture of violence and there has been cases of innocent people being executed. It has not been proven an effective deterrent against violent crimes.
Human Rights Organisations:
The Death Penalty Project had worked with Mr Sosus to get the law changed. A statement from the Death Penalty Project says Ghana is the 29th African country to abolish the death penalty, and 124th globally. Mr Sosu said "on death row, prisoners woke up thinking this could be their last day on earth. They were like the living dead: psychologically, they had ceased to be humans. Abolishing the death penalty shows that we are determined as a society not to be inhumane, uncivil, closed, retrogressive and dark".
In 2021 Amnesty International recorded that seven individuals were sentenced to death, bringing the total number of prisoners on death row to 168. Amnesty International West and Central Africa director Samira Daoud had said the vote was "a victory for all those who have tirelessly campaigned to consign this cruel punishment to history and strengthen the protection of the right to life"
Until the next Legal Thought,
Elicia Maxwell
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