All prisoners on death row should be released, the South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights (Sapohr) said on Friday.
”Sapohr’s suggestion would be that all those former death-row inmates be set free, for once and for all.
”After all, the majority of them have been behind bars for such a long time, they virtually have no life to fall back to,” said Golden Miles Bhudu, president of Sapohr.
If they had been sentenced to life imprisonment under apartheid, most of them would have been set free in the democratic era.
The organisation said it supports, wholeheartedly, the ruling by the Constitutional Court on Wednesday that the 62 prisoners still on death row should have the death sentence set aside and replaced.
In a unanimous judgement, the court said that it must be given a report by August 15 to show the extent of compliance with this order.
In March, four prisoners on death row appealed to the court that they and other prisoners sentenced to death should be given a fresh trial and sentence.
The death penalty was declared unconstitutional, cruel and inhuman in June 1995.
”Sapohr regarded the death penalty right from our inception as a savage and immoral institution that undermines the moral and legal foundation of a society.
”We rejected since our inception the notion that the death penalty has any essential deterrent effect on potential offenders,” Bhudu said.
However, the organisation said prisoners who do not have support structures such as families might fall back on crime once they are freed. — Sapa