, I began a discussion on proprietary of Nigeria’s retention of the death penalty. I concluded last week’s piece with the examination of the argument that the death penalty deters criminals. My view, as stated last week, is that it does not.A further argument for the retention of death penalty is that some crimes are horrific and their effects so profound that only the death penalty could indicate society’s disapproval of the conduct of those who committed them.
In Nigeria here, some decades back, a national daily reported the public execution, by firing squad, of some persons convicted of armed robbery. As was customary after the first round of shots had been fired at the condemned men, a doctor on hand to certify their deaths moved closer to examine them. To the doctor’s surprise he found one of them, mortally wounded and barely alive, muttering almost inaudibly.
In 1964, a similar discretion was exercised in favour of a man tried and convicted of sabotage and conspiracy to violently overthrow the government of South Africa. The trial Judge rejected the prosecution’s application for the imposition of the death penalty and on the contrary sentenced the accused to life imprisonment. This convict spent 27 years in jail and returned to lead his country through a phase of democratic reforms. That man was Nelson Mandela.
Previously all murders carried the death penalty on conviction, but the 1957 Act limited the death penalty to the following cases:* Murder by shooting or by causing an explosion; s.5
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