The Parliament of Ghana has abolished the death penalty for all ordinary crimes (including murder, genocide, piracy and smuggling of gold and diamonds and attempted murder in prison) by passing a private member’s Bill to amend the Criminal Offences (Amendment) Act, tabled by the MP for Madina, Francis Xavier-Sosu.
According to a parliamentary committee report, the new bill will amend the state’s Criminal Offences Act to substitute life imprisonment for the death penalty. President Nana Akufo-Addo still has to assent for the law to take effect.
“This is a great advancement of the human rights record of Ghana,” said Francis-Xavier Sosu, the parliamentarian who tabled the bill.
“We have conducted research, from the constitutional review to opinion polls, and they all show that most Ghanaians want the death penalty removed.”
Ghana is the 29th country to abolish the death penalty in Africa and the 124th globally. There are 170 men and 6 women on its death row, whose death sentences will now be replaced by life imprisonment.
Ghana has not carried out an execution since 1993, but until today, its courts were still imposing death sentences, and its death row grew every year. In cases of murder, the death penalty was mandatory, leaving judges no discretion to impose a lesser sentence. Last year seven people were sentenced to death.
Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, and Zambia are among the latest African states to have ended capital punishment in the last two years.
