Death Penalty News

Two landmark cases in Malawi – one asserting the right to life as ‘the mother of all rights’; the other declaring the mandatory death penalty unconstitutional – appear to have announced the death knell for the death penalty there. Lindiwe Sibande reports. Less than a year after winning the prestigious Chatham House Prize in recognition of the historic decision to overturn Malawi’s controversial 2019 tripartite elections (the award cited the “courage and independence” of Malawi’s constitutional court judges “in the defence of democracy”), the Malawian judiciary has made international headlines, once again, by declaring the death penalty there unconstitutional. In the landmark case of Charles Khoviwa v The Republic (MSCA Miscellaneous Criminal Appeal No 12 of 2017; [2021] MWSC 3, 28 April 2021), the Supreme Court of Appeal held that the right to life was “the mother of all rights”. The court further held that “without the right to life, other rights do not exist” and, therefore, “the d...

A judge in Malawi has sentenced the murderer of an albino teenager to death, saying the unprecedented penalty could help end a spree of similar killings linked to the country’s general election. Willard Mikaele was told he would hang for the strangling and ritualistic dismemberment of Mphatso Pensulo, who was 19 when he was lured into his killer's house with a promise of juice and biscuits in 2017. Pensulo’s murder was one of at least 25 documented killings of albinos since 2014, a spree that has spread terror through Malawi’s 10,000-strong community and raised troubling questions about the country’s political culture. Albinos, who suffer from a genetic condition that bleaches the skin, eyes and hair white, have long been the victims of a widely held superstition that their bones and innards contain magical properties which bring luck and material wealth. But albino-rights activists believe that the trade in albino body parts is driven by politicians, who are amo...

It has been 24 years since the Malawi government executed a convicted murderer, but President Peter Mutharika has called for discussions on implementing the death penalty to deter attacks on people with albinism. False beliefs that the body parts of albinos bring good fortune have led to a series of attacks on them in Malawi. Since 2013, at least 20 albinos have been killed and 130 injured in the southern African country. Most recently, police officers, a medical officer and a Roman Catholic priest were charged in last month's slaying of MacDonald Masambuka, 22, whose body was found dismembered. Mutharika wants the nation to debate imposing the death penalty for murder. While the country has a death penalty law on the books, it hasn't been used since the change to a democratic government in 1994. Instead, convicted murderers remain in prison for life, even if they are given a death sentence. That is cruel because there is no pardon or commutation of the s...

LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Malawi President Peter Mutharika has called for a “honest national dialogue” if the country should resume capital punishment in response to murder rate so that people found guilty of killing especially persons with albinism be slapped with death penalty. President Mutharika said in a statement issued by Presidential Press Secretary Mgeme Kalilani and made available to The Maravi Post on Thursday. There have been fevered calls for country to lift the moratorium on executions following the resurfacing of gruesome attacks on persons with albinism. Kalilani said the Malawi leader is asking for an “honest national dialogue” on whether the country should start implementing the death penalty or not on individuals sentenced to death for murder. “President Mutharika is aware that there are some stakeholders who feel passionately that implementing the death penalty on individuals sentenced to death could go a long way as a deterrent to would-be offenders ...

Tanzania's Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said on Thursday at least 34 people have been sentenced to death by hanging for killing people with albinism in the country. Beatrice Mpembo, a state attorney from the DPP, told a two-day consultative meeting to strategize on countering brutality and killings of people with albinism that the convictions were from 2006 to 2016. "Several other cases of people accused of killing people with albinism are still pending in courts throughout the country," Mpembo said. She told the meeting organised by Tanzania Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance in the political capital Dodoma that 67 cases of the killings of people with albinism were still pending in courts across the country. Mpembo said her office has been facing difficulties in administering cases related to the killings of people with albinism and attacks on such people due to insufficient evidence. "Most cases related to ...