Death penalty a slur on civilisation

Newsday

20 October 2010

By Phillip Chidavaenzi and Veneranda Langa

Within the forbidding prison complex, Rudo Masara (not her real name), sits silently, her vacant eyes gazing into the future, now just a wasteland.

For a year now, she has been in this grim dungeon of Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, to which society has banished her to serve penance for her sins.

She is awaiting the executioner, but she has no idea of the date her fate is going to be sealed.

Her crime rules out the possibility of a presidential amnesty, too. In just one sweep of fate, her life was blown away like a spider web after she, in a fit of rage, knifed her husband’s girlfriend to death.

The justice system, which overlooked the wrong done to her, went after her for taking a life.

The system cannot be moved by her remorse, or the unmistakable sincerity of her appeal, which rips you apart: “I was wrong in what I did. I want to tell society that I have now learnt my lesson.”

But this is perhaps a lesson learnt too late, because her fate is now sealed.

Just like her, some of her prisonmates on death row may also have repented of their evil but then, the die has been cast, irrevocably.

While revoking the death penalty might not happen in her lifetime — that is if she is still on death row (given that she doesn’t even know her execution date) — those she will leave behind may just be lucky if Amnesty International Zimbabwe (AI)’s campaign to have the death sentence annulled succeeds.

The human rights watchdog recently wrote to Zanu PF secretary for legal affairs Emmerson Mnangagwa and the two secretaries for legal affairs from the MDC parties, Innocent Gonese (MDC-T) and David Coltart (MDC-M) to sweet-talk their supporters into advocating for the erasure of the death penalty from the country’s statutes.

“The creation of a new constitution presents a golden opportunity for Zimbabwe to join the worldwide movement of countries that have abolished the death penalty . . . Of the 52 states in the African Union, 49 did not carry out any executions during 2008 and 2009,” reads part of the letter.

Outspoken clergymen and director of Jesuit Communications in the Catholic Church, Father Oskar Wermter, says the death penalty is a violation of the sanctity of human life.

“My attitude and that of the church is that there should not be a death penalty because life is sacred, and even the life of a criminal is sacred,” said Wermter.

Pastor Erasmus Makarimayi concurs, saying the justice delivery system needs to be watertight because there were many people who had been wrongfully jailed. He says God’s primary desire is to allow humanity to turn to Him and He is ever ready to extend His forgiveness.

The Deputy Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Obert Gutu describes capital punishment as barbaric and primitive. Legal empirical research done in different countries, he says, has revealed that the death sentence was not a deterrent to serious crime.

“When you look at the modern jurisprudential approach, the death penalty has been frowned upon globally and that is the modern approach,” says Gutu.

“My opinion is that in any civilised society the death penalty should not be upheld. The question is if we sentence serious offenders to death, do we necessarily curb crime?”

Gutu says for more than 10 years now, there have been 57 people on death row; something he says is in itself psychological torture.

Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs minister, Advocate Eric Matinenga, says death sentence should be erased from Zimbabwe’s statutes but, if it has to be used, it has to be a last resort.

“Sometimes you might think a conviction is proper but later discover that you made a mistake when the person is already dead and there is no way it can be reversed,” says Matinenga.

South Africa, which has one of the highest crime rates in the world, has since abolished the death sentence.

Capital punishment is provided for in Section 12 of the Zimbabwe Constitution which states: “ . . . it shall be lawful for a person to be killed following a death sentence imposed on him/her by a court”.

The death penalty was originally instituted in the pre-civilisation era among primitive societies during which laws were handed down orally and applied in a subjective and arbitrary way by chiefs.

It was applied mainly for crimes such as murder, high treason and sacrileges.

A number of African countries including Burundi, Djibouti and Rwanda, had also removed this law.

Zimbabwe now stands alone after her neighbours – Angola, Namibia and Mozambique – also decided to go the civilised way.

But for the likes of Masara, whose country is yet to consider scrapping the law, the waiting remains, and so does the uncertain future.