The country director of Amnesty International Ghana, Genevieve Partington, has said that fears that the abolishment of the death penalty in statute books will drive up crime are unfounded.

Speaking on The Law on JoyNews, she explained that there has been no increase in crime, especially murder, in the numerous countries that have abolished death penalty.

She added that there has also been no research to prove that death penalty dissuades people from committing crimes.

“Death penalty absolutely never serves as a deterrent to crime, there are absolutely no statistics that prove that. So the thing is that we don't have a basis for keeping the death penalty in our books,” she said.

“The International Criminal Court does not issue the death penalty either, so why are we trying to do that? Burundi and Chad are conflict zones, but they abolished the death penalty,” she noted.

The Amnesty International Ghana country director's concerns follow a parliament debate over a private members' bill seeking to abolish the death penalty in Ghana's constitution.

Genevieve Partington noted that although Ghana has been abolitionist de facto, thus not killing anyone on death row since 1993, nothing stops the country from picking up the practice again.

“Unfortunately, the people who are currently on death row are people from very poor vulnerable backgrounds, which means they are more likely to have had unfair trials and more likely to have a misunderstanding of the law, a lot of them also are told to plead guilty because its easier.”

“We mustn't forget the prison conditions of those on death row. I know people might not sympathise, but if you go to the prisons, it is very deplorable. You have congestion, some of them have diseases because of the congestion and they are isolated. So, the privileges other prisoners see, they don't get access to those activities.” 

She noted that the prison system should be a place to reform people adding that it is contradictory for the state to kill persons after sentencing them for murder.

Background

For years, some civil society organisations have called for the abolition of the death penalty. In Ghana, capital punishment is a mandatory sentence for certain offenses including murder, treason and genocide.

However, Ghana last executed convicts on death row in 1993, the year of Ghana’s return to civilian rule. Twelve people convicted of armed robbery or murder were executed by firing squad.

According to a report by Amnesty International, as of the end of 2020, 160 people – 155 men and five women – were under sentence of death. These included six foreign nationals, one from Benin, two from Burkina Faso and three from Nigeria.

Amnesty International cited a lack of effective legal representation among others for the plight of some convicts on death row.

“The death penalty in Ghana has been frequently used in violation of international law and standard, affecting predominantly those from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, as shown by research carried out by Amnesty International. It is high time the authorities of Ghana acted to fully abolish it.”

“Conditions for men and women on death row do not meet international standards. Both men and women reported overcrowding, poor sanitary facilities, isolation, and lack of adequate access to medical care and to recreational or educational opportunities available to other people in detention. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception,” parts of the research read.

Among other things, they are calling for an express abolishment of death penalty for all crimes, commuting the death sentences of all death row prisoners to terms of imprisonment; reviewing the cases of all death row prisoners to identify any potential miscarriages of justice and providing all death row prisoners, regardless of means, with adequate and effective legal aid to pursue any appeals against their convictions and death sentences.

Meanwhile, In June 2021, Francis Xavier Sosu, a member of Parliament for Madina Constituency in Ghana, initiated a proposal for the introduction of a bill to remove the death penalty from the Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29). The proposal seeks to abolish the death penalty for most capital offences under national legislation.