MALAWI: COURTS BEGIN RE-SENTENCING OF DEATH-ROW PRISONERS

February 10, 2015: Re-sentencing for some 170 death row inmates begins this Wednesday (February 11) as part of adherence to a landmark court ruling in 2007 which nullified mandatory death penalty.
The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions says the first of 16 cases in the first phase starts in the country’s old capital Zomba with the murder convicts standing a chance for acquittal or lesser sentences. 
“All is set for the re-hearing, we have various stakeholders involved including Malawi law society that have provided 30 lawyers to handle the cases,” said Dzikondianthu Malunda Senior Assistant Chief State advocate in the ministry of Justice.
He however said 88 of the 170 case files for resentencing are missing in what he attributed to poor record keeping system.
“On the missing files what we are doing is to re-construct the files by talking to relations of the deceased, the convicts and other respected people in society such as chiefs,” added Malunda.
Re-sentencing of the death row inmates followed a 2007 high court ruling nullifying mandatory death sentenced for any murder convict marking a turning point in the country’s criminal justice system.
In the case, one Kafantayeni (Now deceased) and four other murder convicts challenged imposition of a mandatory death penalty and true to their wish the court held that mandatory death penalty was a violation of the right to fair trial.
The Malawi Human Rights Commission says this implies that death penalty remains applicable but not mandatory and that it remains at the discretion of the judge to determine whether a murder convict be sentenced to life or a lesser sentence. 
In another ruling on a murder case in 2010, the high court ruled that in light of the Kafantayeni case, all inmates on death row be subjected to re-hearing. There are 170 inmates to undergo re-sentencing.
Briefing journalists in Lilongwe, Malawi Human rights Commission executive secretary Grace Malera said “the re-sentencing does not mean the death penalty has been scrapped off from the law”.
The sentence rehearing project has been funded by Tilitonse Fund (a pool of various donors) to the tune of about 150 million kwacha under a three year project which end this year.
But Malera said there is enough funding to complete re-hearing all the 170 cases. (Sources: zodiakmalawi.com, 10/02/2015)