Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio

SIERRA LEONE FORMALLY ABOLISHES ‘INHUMANE’ DEATH PENALTY

October 9, 2021:

Sierra Leone on 8 October 2021 formally abolished the death penalty, becoming the 23rd African country to repeal capital punishment.
President Julius Maada Bio signed the bill into law after legislators in the former British colony had voted unanimously in its favour on 23 July.
During a ceremony in the capital Freetown, Bio declared that the West African country had “exorcised horrors of a cruel past” after a long campaign to end capital punishment.
In a statement, the president denounced capital punishment “inhumane.” “We today affirm our belief in the sanctity of life,” he said.
Under the new law, execution will be replaced with life imprisonment or a minimum 30-year jail term for crimes such as murder or mutiny.
The bill also gives judges additional discretion when issuing sentences, which opponents of capital punishment say is particularly important in cases where the person convicted is a victim of sexual violence.
Civil society groups had fought for years for the death penalty to be abolished in the country, which is still recovering after decades of civil war.
Deputy Minister of Justice Umaru Napoleon Koroma told AFP news agency that Sierra Leone’s first recorded execution dated from 1798 – around a decade after Britain founded the colony for freed slaves in 1787.
Ninety-four people were living under a death sentence at the end of 2020, the minister added.
The West African nation has observed a moratorium on executions, but prisoners sentenced to death still live separately from other inmates, which activists say is dehumanising.
The last time the death penalty was carried out in the country was in 1998, when 24 soldiers were executed by firing squad at the height of the 11-year civil war. But death sentences have continued to be issued.
According to Amnesty International, 108 countries had completely scrapped the death penalty by the end of 2020, while 144 had abolished it either in law or in practice.
Twenty-two African countries have banned the death penalty for all crimes, the rights group said.
Both executions and death penalties also fell across sub-Saharan Africa last year, according to Amnesty International.
Recorded death sentences fell by six percent, from 325 in 2019 to 305 last year, while executions were down 36 percent, falling from 25 in 2019 to 16 in 2020.