‘Death penalty does not deter others from committing same crime’

Barrister Igiriogu Francis Anayochukwu is a human rights lawyer with interest in criminal justice reform, health law and legal aid issues. He is the Programme Manager, Security and Justice Department of Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), an NGO in Nigeria. In this interview with JULIANA FRANCIS, Anayochukwu insists that death penalty is not the solution to reduction of crime in the country. Excerpt:

Are you aware that some of the inmates on death row are actually innocent?
The 1999 Nigerian constitution (as amended) recognises the sanctity of life in section 33(1). Similarly, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) 1966, ratified by Nigeria, also proclaims in Article 6 (1) the sanctity of life and that it can only be deprived through due process of the law. African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights in Article 4 also proclaims the importance of right to life.
Though right to life is not absolute, but the contemporary practice in most countries today is towards abolition of death penalty, or at least national commitment to Moratorium.
I’m aware that some of the inmates on death row in Nigeria are likely to be innocent of the charges that led to their death sentences. This is especially the case because majority of those on death row are poor persons that cannot afford best of lawyers.
What is your reaction to the latest order from Mr. President that Governors should begin to sign death warrantss for those on death row?
If there was a directive from Mr. President to Governors to start exercising their executive powers by signing death warrant in their respective states, such directive is most unfortunate and counter-productive. The current global trend is towards abolition of death penalty. Indeed, ECOWAS’ Court of Justice, not quite long, frowned against Nigeria’s practice of death penalty in the cases of Maimuna Abdulmumini and Thankgod Ebhos.
The Court was emphatic in ordering Nigeria to continue to abide by its commitment to the Moratorium against the death penalty. Besides, the Hon. Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN) has assured United Nations’ delegation, led by Madam Navi Pillay of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (as she then was), that the Federal Government will abide by the decision of the ECOWAS Court, stopping it from further executing criminals on death row.
Any contrary directive by Mr. President will, therefore, be policy somersault especially since the assurance to the international community came from the chief law officer of the federation.
The question is- what benefit does death penalty give to the victim (the person killed by the accused person), the relations and to the society? Does death penalty compensate any of this group or bring back the deceased to life? The answer is that it does not benefit the victim, the family or even the society.
It does not also compensate any of the group; it instead aggravates the agony of the family of the deceased victim knowing that another life has been lost in the process of getting justice. Experience has shown that most families of deceased victims will not approve sending the accused person to the gallows.
What would be an inmate’s psychological disposition after spending 10 years on death row, only to be found innocent?
In any event, if the accused person is really guilty of murder, sending him to the gallows is not the most reasonable action in the circumstance. When such a person is hanged, that is the end of his consciousness regarding the crime.
He is no longer alive to see the consequences of his action. On the other hand, if such person is sentenced to life imprisonment- for instance- he will witness suffering, see the consequences of his action and probably have opportunity to make amends. Research has also shown that imposing death penalty on any offence does not reduce or deter people from committing such crime.
Armed Robbery increased with great ferocity after promulgation of Robbery and Fire Arms Decree 1970, making the offence capital one punishable with death. Many states have made kidnapping a capital offence punishable with death, yet kidnapping has not abated.
We’re still praying for release of our beloved Okey Wali (SAN) immediate past President of Nigerian Bar Association. The danger in making offences capital in nature is that it elevates such offences to a ‘deadly’ crime in which the perpetrators will do all within their powers, no matter how heinous, not to leave any trace of their dastardly act.
The consequence is the tendency to eliminate their victims and any other person that can point at them so that nobody can ‘fish them out’ and send them to the gallows. Whereas without death penalty, the perpetrators would not be as ‘deadly’ as they are now- knowing that if they were caught, the highest punishment that would be meted out to them is term of imprisonment.
Do you think the judiciary and police are equipped, to ‘send’ suspects/accused to death without giving them second chance of being investigated?
I do not think our law enforcement agencies and the judiciary are well equipped to sentence accused persons to death without running the risk of sending innocent persons to the gallows. We lack standard and functional forensic laboratory in Nigeria to test exhibits which come as forensic evidence before our courts.
The only functional one in Lagos is ill equipped, lacking modern day forensic machines that are used to analyse ex-hibits. This has, in most cases, led the police, out of frustration, to resort to torture in order to elicit confessional statement which is the easier way of convicting the accused person.
Even though the plea of ‘guilty’ of the accused person will be recorded as ‘not guilty’ in capital offences, yet that plea has made an impression on the mind of the judge so much so that if the accused person is not represented by a good lawyer, he stands the risk of being convicted. What is the way out?
The way forward is for Nigeria to keep to its commitment to Moratorium. This is achievable and the Federal Attorney General should take the lead to convince State Attorneys General where majority of the death penalty take place on the importance of moratorium. We should resort to only giving terms of imprisonment in all types of offences. PRAWA as a human right to, Security and Justice NGO, has been in the forefront of advocating for abolition of death penalty in Nigeria.
PRAWA has done this advocacy through many workshops, written materials, video documentaries and advocacy visits. PRAWA is celebrating its 20th anniversary on the 5th of November 2014. The opportunity will be used to showcase all the programmes PRAWA have carried out all these 20 years, including our work on death penalty abolition.