Human rights activists seek end to capital punishment

BY ROSE MWALONGO

He knew that he was innocent and had nothing to worry about. He went to court confidently thinking that he would be found innocent.

Little did he know what lay ahead of him as it had taken years for the court to deliver the sentence; the day he had been waiting for. A Judge of the High Court of Tanzania issued the judgment that he was found guilty of murder and would thus be sentenced to death.

“I can’t explain how it felt as all of a sudden my body became numb and I could not even walk past the few steps at the High Court. It is better to hear someone else sentenced to death and not you trust me,” said Tete Kafunja, while giving his testimony to mark the World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10, 2011 at a gathering convened by the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) in Dar es Salaam.

Kafunja‘s story was part of the testimonies issued to depict on the evil of the death sentence.

Presenting a paper on the event, an anti-death penalty campaigner from the University of Dar es Salaam, Dr. Khoti Khamanga, said religious teachings say the punishment is not as easy as people wanted to believe. He gave the example of God ordering Adam and Eve to eat any fruit and failure of which was supposed to be death.

“We are all aware that Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit but they were never punished by death but rather God told them that the man will eat through hard labour while Eve will have to undergo painful delivery,” Dr. Khamanga alluded to the Bible.

Dr. Khamanga often referred to the Biblical Abel and Cain as the first homicide case. He said Cain killed his brother, an act which disappointed God so much, yet the Almighty cursed Cain saying he would lead a life of wandering!

Contributing to the discussion, a participant, James Julius, wondered on what happens to the hangman once he kills a person.

“If a mortuary attendant is affected by staying with dead bodies what do you think happens to the person who pulls the knob or who kills, beheads or shoots a person convicted to die? The government, too, kills people. Must we too kill it?” he querried queried, raising concern over the psychological torture that the hang man has to endure.

Francis Kiwanga, executive director of the LHRC is of the view that Tanzanians should sit as a nation to find an alternative to the death penalty.

“There is evidence that a person found guilty today can as well be innocent the next morning. You may sentence someone to death today only to find out tomorrow that he was innocent.

There’s never a way to reverse the decision. The trend could see a lot of innocent persons lose their lives,” he said.

He proposed a long-term prison term which will see murder convicts to support families of slain victims.

Presenting a paper recently on the evils of capital punishment at a meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, LHRC Advocate Harold Sungusia said laws that impose death penalty are strictly based on vengeance.

He cautioned that it was dangerous for governments to adhere to unguided public opinion on account that if it were to be adhered to with its quest for vengeance, then it would require governments to provide a mechanism where in a case of rape, the rapist would be sentenced to rape or castrated.

In the case of robbery, the sentence would be to rob the robber. Similarly, in a case of corruption it would be more difficulty. All this would lead to an irrational reverse of rule of law and recycling of injustice and mischief.

“The duty of state is to preserve life not to take it away. The state should make every effort to provide policy guidance and decisions that would end the death penalty,” Sangusia told the Kigali summit

Today one may be a decision-maker and tomorrow the same person may be a death row inmate,” Sangusia concluded.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN


(2011-11-12/ippmedia.com)