By Alpha Abu & Nasratu Kargbo
The repeal of the death penalty by the government of Sierra Leone has attracted reactions from many quarters within and out of the country with development partners hailing the action. UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in a tweet said it was fantastic to see Parliament vote on abolishing the death penalty. He congratulated President Bio and the people of Sierra Leone for what he said was an important milestone and registered the UK’s continued support to the country.
This is after the Parliament of Sierra Leone on Friday 23 July 2021 unanimously endorsed the abolition of the death penalty, effectively replacing the punishment from the country’s law books with life imprisonment or not less than 30 years.
The death sentence has been highly contentious in Sierra Leone and other parts of the third world in recent years with human rights campaigners labelling it as heinous, barbaric or vestige of colonialism.
President Julius Maada Bio had openly stated his desire to see an end to such a law and Attorney General and Minister of Justice Anthony Brewah oversaw the historic moment as the lawmakers finally debated the bill before it was passed at Tower hill, above the city of Freetown.
President Bio in a social media statement extended gratitude to the citizenry including rights groups and members of parliament that he said had steadfastly stood with his government to make history.
Sierra Leone’s deputy Minister of Justice Napoleon Koroma whose office was integral in the entire process of the repeal in his reaction gave a window of hope for those persons who might now be expected to spend years behind bars by saying that “life imprisonment with the possibility of them reforming is the way to go”.
A women’s rights organisation AdvocAid in a statement said 23 July 2021 will remain a memorable date for the country as “Parliament made history announcing that Sierra Leone will abolish the death penalty for all crimes”. Its Director, Rhiannon Davis described the development as a huge step forward for such a “fundamental human right in the country”.
Leader of opposition National Grand Coalition (NGC) party in Parliament, Kandeh Yumkella said he was delighted to be part of “the momentous abolition of the death penalty in parliament”, acknowledging that bipartisanship worked and as leaders they demonstrated a willingness to collaborate. He expressed the hope that President Bio will take cognisance of the new situation to commute the sentences of people on death row.
Before the bill was passed into law, the house of Parliament witnessed some heated arguments amongst MPs over the interpretation of life imprisonment and provision in the law on the minimum time for offenders who may not be spending the rest of their lives in jail.
Independent Parliamentarian from Kailahun district, Emilia Loloh Tongi in her contribution called for hard labour for those sentenced to life imprisonment, and said there should be no presidential pardon. Tongi said they should abolish the death penalty with happiness but they should include stringent laws that would scare people from committing the crimes.
Kono district MP, Rebecca Yei Kamara of C4C said if an offender 18 or 20 years old came out of prison after 20 years or less, they could still be active and likely to commit another crime, and asked that they come up with a specific period of imprisonment in case a judge decides years in imprisonment rather than life.
Leader of C4C, Emmerson Lamina asked for a caveat that is devoid of presidential pardon especially first degree murder. He said the caveat will serve as a safeguard that will send fear on potential murderers. Veronica Kadie Sesay of SLPP constituency 094 said they were not making the laws for themselves but for all Sierra Leoneans. The MP said some people have been sentenced to life imprisonment but are freed after some years and therefore called for clarity on what the law says about life imprisonment.
Lahai Marah of APC constituency 042 said the discretion of the judges must be guided and that if there is a maximum, there should also be a minimum. He suggested that the phrase could be "not below thirty years and maximum of life imprisonment" explaining that there are different offences and that if the death penalty was to be abolished, he proposed they have minimum and maximum term.
SLPP MP Hindolo Gevao from Kailahu district told colleagues that in a research he undertook, he found out that the prison system has a terminology called "remission", in which an inmate could have a third, of a twenty year sentence, removed and could serve lesser jail term, which he said was too small for a crime such as murder, robbery with aggravation, treason and mutiny.
Gevao gave two counter motions stating that he would rather have life imprisonment mean, the entire remaining life span of the convict should be spent in prison. He said the bill before them gave twenty-five years for manslaughter and that pegging thirty years minimum for such serious crimes was a punishment too light and he will find it difficult to convince his constituents on that.
He said it’s unfair for someone who may have committed manslaughter to be imprisoned for twenty-five years whilst someone who murdered got thirty years, and believed with the likelihood of the one -third remission provision in the prison system coming into consideration in which a convict could be released based on exemplary behaviour or resourcefulness, that could lessen the period to twenty-three years.
After a long debate, Gevao later withdrew his counter motion saying he always been in support of the abolishment of the death penalty but has always believed in stiffer punishment as well. He then requested that the Speaker Dr. Abass Bundu should ignore his motion.
The Majority leader, Mathew Nyumah asked that life imprisonment be referred to as a term not less than thirty years, a position he said they arrived at after research. He said Sierra Leone should be in conformity with other states by removing the death penalty. MPs finally agreed that life imprisonment should entail a minimum of thirty years serving time, giving the judge discretion on the maximum sentence.
Before its abolishment, the death penalty was handed down for the offences of murder, robbery with aggravation, treason and mutiny. Sierra Leone becomes the 23rd country in Africa and 110th in the world to have abolished the death penalty. Malawi was the last country in Africa to expunge the act from its law books in April this year.
According to the human rights organisation Amnesty International, 39 people in Sierra Leone received the death sentence in 2020 and that by the end of last year there were 94 death row inmates.16 officially sanctioned executions were reportedly carried out in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2020, as compared to 25 in 2019, which represents a 36% drop. South Sudan, Somalia and Botswana were known to have carried out the killings, according to Amnesty.
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