The death penalty has officially been repealed from Ghana’s statute books after parliament approved an amendment to the Criminal and Other Offences Act.

The amendment bill, sponsored by Madina MP Francis Xavier Sosu, was passed on Tuesday, July 25, 2023, waiting for the president's assent.

Speaking to the media, Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin noted that the passing of the amendment bill is one to celebrate especially since international human rights institutions condemned the death penalty provision as repugnant.

He stated that amending the Criminal and Other Offences Act is a good way of making room for new forms of sentencing.

“We have had a death penalty in our statute books for well over 50 years. It has been a concern. I'm happy to say that we have by this amendment of the parent act been able to repeal that provision that deals with the death penalty. So simply put, the death penalty is no more a punishment in our statutes,” he stated.

Mr Afenyo-Markin noted that the repealing of the death penalty is not to encourage murder, a crime that previously could lead a convict to be put on death row.

“What we are saying is that God gives us life and under no circumstances should a person's life be taken merely because of committing such an offence. That is not to say that those who take it upon themselves to take the lives of others are being encouraged to do so,” he stated.

As such, the Effutu MP said that in place of the death penalty, life imprisonment has been introduced “meaning that such a person will not have the opportunity to come back to our society to commit such an offence possibly again.“

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 offences 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.