Should Ghana take the death penalty out of its laws?

The death penalty is a form of capital punishment instituted by the constitution which requires that certain crimes, as dictated by the law be punished by death.

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 offenses including murder, treason, and genocide.

Crimes punishable by death in Ghana are:

A person who intentionally causes death by unlawful harm "shall be liable to suffer death."

The Constitution and Criminal Code list treason as punishable by death.

The Constitution states that individuals who commit treason against the constitutional order "shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to suffer death."

Genocide is punished by death. Genocide includes the following acts committed with the intent of destroying in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group: killing or causing serious mental or bodily harm to members of the group, inflicting conditions intended to destroy the group, imposing measures to end births in the group, or forcibly transferring children from that group to another group.

However, Ghana last executed convicts on death row in 1993, the year of Ghana's return to civilian rule. 12 people convicted of armed robbery or murder were executed by a firing squad.

Amnesty International cited a lack of effective legal representation among others for the plight of some convicts on death row.

The death penalty in Ghana has been frequently used in violation of international law and standards, affecting predominantly those from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, as shown by research carried out by Amnesty International. It is high time the authorities of Ghana acted to fully abolish it.

Conditions for men and women on death row do not meet international standards. Both men and women reported overcrowding, poor sanitary facilities, isolation, and lack of adequate access to medical care and to recreational or educational opportunities available to other people in detention. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, parts of the research read.

Among other things, they are calling for an express abolishment of the death penalty for all crimes, commuting the death sentences of all death row prisoners to terms of imprisonment; reviewing the cases of all death row prisoners to identify any potential miscarriages of justice and providing all death row prisoners, regardless of means, with adequate and effective legal aid to pursue any appeals against their convictions and death sentences.

In June 2021, Francis Xavier Sosu, the Member of Parliament for Madina, proposed a bill to remove the death penalty from the Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29). The proposal seeks to abolish the death penalty for most capital offences under national legislation.

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.

He said "Even if we would retain the death penalty in the constitution, it would be for treason and high treason."

He added that Ghana would join the majority of the world who have rejected capital punishment as an abuse of human rights, indicating that there are one hundred and twenty (120) countries globally that have rejected the death penalty with just a few countries left to do so.

Sosu said the Criminal Offences Amendment Act, which seeks to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment has the backing of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who is hopeful Parliament passes the bill into law.

However, the Member of Parliament for Zebilla constituency in the Upper East Region, Cletus Avoka, has kicked against calls for the abolishment of the death penalty from Ghana's law books and argued that the elimination of the law will rather increase instance justice activities where suspects are killed by civilians without a judicial trial.

"Abolishing the death penalty has the tendency to increase mob justice," he said.

But the country director of Amnesty International Ghana, Genevieve Partington, called on the Ghanaian authorities to commute the death sentences of all people on death row and to abolish the death penalty for all crimes.

She said fears that the abolishment of the death penalty in statute books will drive up crime are unfounded.

She explained that there has been no increase in crime, especially murder, in the numerous countries that have abolished the death penalty.

One may ask if indeed to stop the mob justice in the country, it is time to take the death penalty out of Ghana's law book.