Amnesty International Ghana (AI) has revealed that, Ghana has 160 inmates on death row currently waiting for their execution but since 1993, no President has signed for execution of prisoners.
According to the group, what it means is that these inmates can be executed at any point in time at the signing of their death warrant by any President who comes to power.
The 160 inmates are made up of 155 males and five females adding that the country is an abolitionist of death penalty in practice but the laws on death penalty are still in the statutory books of Ghana.
The group made this known on October 12, in Accra on 19th World Day against the Death Penalty which was on October 10, 2021, on the theme; ‘Women and Death Penalty, an Invisible Realty,’ advocated that the time to abolish the death penalty is now.
Speaking to the Republic Press, the Country Director of AI Ghana, Mr. Frank Kwaku Doyi said death penalty has been imposed mainly as a mandatory punishment for murder, meaning that judges are unable to consider any mitigating factors relating to the case, circumstance of the offence or the background to the defendant at sentencing when they imposed the death penalty.
Mr Doyi said majority of inmates on death row cannot afford to appeal for their convictions and death sentence because it is beyond their financial capabilities, many of them too do not understand their rights to appeal and how to pursue the process.
He said the conditions of men and women on death row do not meet international standard either poor health conditions, overcrowding, poor sanitary facilities, isolation and lack of adequate access to recreational or educational opportunities.
He said all statistics around the globe show that death penalty deters crime more effectively than life imprisonment adding that a country like United States of America has maintained the death penalty in their legislation and yet crime rates remain extremely high.
“We are calling on Ghanaian authorities to commute all death sentences to terms of imprisonment and ensure all cases are reviewed to identify any miscarriage of justice,” the Country Director of AI stated.
On his part, the Member of Parliament for Madina Constituency, Mr. Francis Xavire Sosu said the goal of the Private Member Bill laid in Parliament to support the abolition of the death penalty is that by the end of the next sitting of Parliament, or probably next year, the bill clearly would be ready for consideration.
Mr Sosu said that we can achieve about 95% of abolition when we amend the Criminal Offences Act 1960, Act 29 if adopted and signed into law, the law abolishes the death penalty for most offences under national legislation
“This is a unique opportunity for Ghana to join the majority of the world’s countries and become the next one to abolish this punishment in law adding that it was an innovative idea for the President to direct his Attorney General to work out a way on how to implement the Constitutional Review Committee Report which talked about abolishing the death penalty.
He said the response from Members of Parliament was positive when the bill was laid in Parliament.
“I believe that it will go through the process and finally be adopted so that Ghana can join their West African neighbour Sierra Leone to abolish the death penalty which is highly against the right to life which is the fundamental human rights of every individual.”
