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Opinion Cuthbert Mavheko
When Zimbabwe became independent in 1980, there were firm prospects that the new government would abolish the death penalty, which was described by then Prime Minister Cde Robert Mugabe as being incompatible with his vision. However, it is disconcerting to note that the death penalty, which was used by the white settlers to suppress African nationalism in bygone days of colonialism, is still in our Statute books, over three decades after the winds of political metamorphosis swept colonial rule into oblivion.

Recently Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister and Vice-President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa called for the total abolition of the death penalty. It is pertinent to note that Zimbabwe’s new constitution, which was adopted in May last year, outlaws capital punishment for women and men under the age of 18 years as well as those over 70 years. Be that as it may, Cde Mnangagwa insinuated that he advocated for a situation where all people, regardless of age or gender, would be spared the gallows. He said this at a constitution advocacy meeting in Marondera, where his Ministry conscientised people about the new supreme law of the country.

The death penalty or capital punishment is a legal process where offenders are put to death by the State for serious crimes like murder, treason and so forth. It is the strong contention of this scribe that the death penalty is the most cruel, inhuman and degrading form of punishment and it denies offenders the right to life enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Crimes that merit the death penalty are commonly referred to as capital crimes or capital offences. There are many methods of executing criminals in use in the world today and these include electrocution, beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting in the back of the head or by firing squad.

From a moral stand-point, it should be agreed that killing is a horrendous act, whether it is perpetrated by a sane or insane person or by the State. Killing vitiates the sanctity of human life and anyone who kills breaks the sixth commandment which says:”Thou shalt not kill.” For it is God who gave life and it is only Him who has the prerogative to take or destroy it. There is unanimity of opinion among advocates of capital punishment that it (the death penalty) deters people from committing crime. I beg to differ with this school of thought because there is absolutely no evidence to authenticate such claims. In any event, the death penalty has been in use the world over since time immemorial and yet murder is still rife today. With the foregoing as a back-drop, may I humbly question the wisdom and rationality of retaining capital punishment in our own statute books when there is not a shred of evidence that the moral fabric of society has improved through years of enforcing capital punishment.

There is a consensus of opinion among some psychologists that most offenders commit the act of murder impulsively. They kill in a fit of apoplexy or while under the influence of drugs, alcohol or other intoxicating substances. One striking feature about perpetrators of premeditated murder is that they usually commit the crime being fully aware and cognizant of the dire consequences of their iniquitous deeds. The fact that they ignore this and go ahead to kill shows that they are by nature emotionally unstable people. In the light of this, I personally think it would be folly and indeed misguided to expect such people to be deterred by the threat or fear of being hanged.

Let us put things in perspective in clear language here, there is absolutely no proof that there is a difference in the murder rates between countries that enforce capital punishment and those that have abolished it. Honestly speaking, if the death sentence sent cold shivers down the spines of people, would murder still be an issue today? The media in Zimbabwe today attests to this chilling reality of our time: the sharp increase in the number of incidents involving patricide, infanticide, sororicide etc: “Teenager strangles new-born baby to death; Jilted lover beheads girlfriend; Man sentenced to death for killing own father.” These are some of the blood-curdling news reports that we read in our newspapers and magazines almost daily. All issues being normal, however, it needs to be said, loudly and clearly, that not all people being sentenced to death are guilty. Reports abound of innocent people who have been executed for crimes that they did not commit. This brings to mind an incident that happened in rural Masvingo in the early 70’s. A villager named Jango (not his real name) was sentenced to death and subsequently hanged for murdering his herd-boy, notwithstanding the fact that the State had failed to establish conclusively that he was guilty. However, a few years later, the real murderer surrendered himself to the police and confessed to the murder, saying the spirit of the man he had murdered was haunting him. Although Jango was post-humously exonerated, the State did not compensate his family for this miscarriage of justice.

Since 1973, 150 prisoners on death row in the US were later exonerated after new evidence surfaced that they were not guilty. However, many others were sent to the gallows, despite the fact that the courts expressed reservations in terms of their culpability. It should also be mentioned here that some countries like China, Iraq and Iran, which are known to execute scores of people every year, have flawed legal systems and often sentence people to death in murky and questionable circumstances. Many of these death sentences are often passed after confessions induced by torture. It is equally pertinent to highlight the fact that, in most cases, it is poor people who are executed primarily because, being economically marginalised, they have no access to legal resources needed to defend themselves.

According to some reports, today 58 countries in the world actively enforce the death penalty for crimes of a capital nature while 98 countries have abolished it de jure for all crimes. Seven countries have abolished it for ordinary or common crimes like theft etc while reserving it for major offences like war crimes. And 35 countries have abolished the death penalty de facto. Nearly all countries in the world forbid the execution of people under the age of 18 years. Since 2009, only Saudi Arabia and Sudan have carried out such executions despite the fact that they are prohibited under International law.