Uganda’s Constitutional Court on Friday rejected an appeal by death-row inmates to outlaw capital punishment, but ruled that laws requiring the imposition of the sentence are illegal and must be rewritten.
”The death penalty is not unconstitutional because it is given by the laws as punishment after due process,” said Justice Galdino Okello, handing down the unanimous decision of the five-judge panel that heard the case.
However, by a narrow three-to-two margin, the justices found that Ugandan laws that mandate the death penalty as punishment for certain serious crimes are unconstitutional and must be amended by Parliament.
A majority on the court said various provisions on mandatory death sentencing are inconsistent with the Constitution and interfere with the discretion of judges in dispensing justice.
”Courts are compelled to pass the death sentence because the law orders them to do so [but] not all the offences can be the same,” Okello said.
”It is the duty of the judiciary to impose any sentence after due process,” said Justice Amos Twinomujuni in a separate concurring opinion.
Human rights lawyers representing the appellants said they are disappointed that the death penalty has not entirely been outlawed, but expressed satisfaction at the rejection of its mandatory application.
”We have made significant achievements on mandatory death sentence because it has been outlawed by the court,” said Livingstone Ssewanyana, of the Uganda Human Rights Initiative.
”Death-row prisoners can now seek redress in court to reconsider their cases, which was not possible before,” he said outside the courthouse, adding that he and his colleagues will study the ruling for a possible appeal.
More than 400 death-row inmates brought their unprecedented appeal to the Constitutional Court — Uganda’s second-highest court — in January, arguing that capital punishment amounts to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment that is prohibited by the Constitution.
The penalty is carried out by hanging in Uganda and the 417 prisoners also said that those sentenced to death often have to wait in torment for unreasonable lengths of time before execution.
The justices agreed with the inmates that the implementation of death sentences should not be delayed as they have been in the past, in some cases up to 20 years.
”The sentence should only be delayed by two years to allow the executive to exercise its prerogative of mercy or the inmate to seek redress from the court,” Okello said.
Twinomujuni suggested in his ruling that while the death sentence is constitutional, sentences of life in prison might be a better alternative.
In Uganda, life imprisonment effectively means incarceration for 20 years. — Sapa-AFP