/ 9 April 1999

DEATH ROW RESENTENCING

HIGH courts have started the process of resentencing some of the 350 prisoners on death row, Justice Minister Dullah Omar’s office said on Thursday. In terms of the 1997 Criminal Law Amendment Act, death row prisoners who have exhausted all avenues of appeal and review must return to the courts where they were originally sentenced to death for a new sentence. The act was introduced after the Constitutional Court declared in 1995 that capital punishment is unconstitutional. The Bar, which represents the country’s advocates, is prepared to represent the prisoners free of charge. Among the prisoners who will be resentenced are Janusz Walus and Clive Derby-Lewis, who were refused amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Wednesday for the 1993 murder of SA Communist Party leader Chris Hani.