The Ghana’s parliament has voted to put an end to the death penalty, saying that this will show that they are determined as a society not to be inhumane, uncivil, closed, retrogressive and dark.
This was made known through BBC, adding that the last execution in Ghana took place in 1993 as execution has been the mandatory sentence for murder. Opinion surveys suggested that most Ghanaian citizens approved of the abolition.
Reports revealed that the country currently has 170 men and six women on death row, whose sentences will now be replaced by life imprisonment.
It was gathered that in 2022, seven people were sentenced to death in Ghana – but none were executed. Treason has also been punishable by death in Ghana.
The bill to amend the Criminal Offences Act was put forward by MP Francis-Xavier Sosu and had the support of the parliament’s Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
it was learnt that a London-based campaign organisation, the Death Penalty Project, had worked with Sosu to get the law changed.
A statement from DPP revealed that Ghana was the 29th African country to abrogate the death penalty, and the 124th globally.
In recent years many African states have abolished the death penalty, including Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone and Zambia.
Sosu said that, “On death row, prisoners woke up thinking this could be their last day on earth. They were like the living dead: psychologically, they had ceased to be humans.
“Abolishing the death penalty shows that we are determined as a society not to be inhumane, uncivil, closed, retrogressive and dark.”
He added this would pave the way to a free and progressive society reflecting “Our common belief that the sanctity of life is inviolable”.
By abolishing death penalty, Ghana will join other long catalogue of African nations that have done so in recent years.
