News:
Francis Xavier Sosu
July 20, 2022
Member of Parliament for Madina, Francis Xavier Sosu said Ghana has not executed anybody under the death penalty under the 1992 fourth Republican Constitution despite having it on its status books for a very long time. According to him amendments to the introduction of the legislation are meant to cure mischief that may occur in its applications.
“I do not think we would want to wait until a particular president comes and his interest is that I want execution, so anybody on death role just bring that person for it to be carried before we wake up as a nation to that reality that so long as it remains on our statuary books the potential of getting people killed still remains”, he asserted.
He noted that research carried out point to the fact that, when a person is convicted of murder or sentenced to death, they are not treated as person who has life, and if one is sentenced to life in prison there are some privileges one has.
But if one is on death role they are kept in the condemned cells where you have limited access to light. The conclusion of being on death role and not being executed amounts to some violation of rights; it is well grounded both in, “our laws and international laws. The challenge over the years is for the abolishing of death penalty in our constitution”.
Again, he pointed out that the clause is an entrenched provision and would require referendum, adding that over the years, there have been challenges trying to get around that. Amnesty International and several CSOs who have been trying to work around that have done multiple stakeholders engagement that led to discovering the new path which is to amend the criminal and other offences Act.
He made this remarks on Tuesday, July 19, 2022 when a United Kingdom (UK) based organization, Death Penalty Project led by its Executive Director Saul Lehrfreund with his team called on Ghana’s Parliament to off support in this direction since they have been working in this field. “Our research shows that if we were able to do that, we would achieve 95 percent abolishing death penalty, and even if we would retain death penalty in the constitution, it would be for treason and high treason”.
A memorandum was introduced, a draft has been done, it has gone through various processes of consultations, it has been gazetted and they are seeking the blessing of leadership so that hopefully next week it can be captured in the business statement and could be read for the first time and referred to the committee on Constitutional Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. With that the committee properly takes charge of the bill, he stated.
He further pointed out that as part of their work, they would visit Nsawam prisons and engage with all people who would have interest in the matter after which there would be clause by clause consideration and referred it back to the plenary.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com