A year ago
With the passing of the Criminal Offenses (Amendment) Bill 2022, Ghana's laws are now technically free of the death penalty.
According to the Bill, the President will have the authority to commute the death penalty to life in prison.
Parliament approved the Bill on Tuesday, July 25.
However, no President of the Fourth Republic has ratified the death sentence, which has been a part of Ghana's Criminal Offences Code since its inception.
The majority of proponents of human rights had demanded the removal of the punishment.
No perpetrator will be sentenced to death as a result of the Bill's passing.
The "feat" pleased Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin, who is also a lawyer, who asked the country to applaud such a gesture.
"The death penalty has been in our statute books for well over 50 years." It has been a source of concern. I'm pleased to report that we were able to repeal the clause dealing with the death sentence through our modification to the parent statute. Simply put, the death penalty is no longer a punishment under our laws," he said.
"What we are saying is that God gives us life, and under no circumstances should a person's life be taken simply because they committed such an offence," the Effutu Member of Parliament stated. That is not to argue that individuals who choose to take the lives of others are encouraged to do so."
The changes add Ghana to about 120 countries in the world that have accepted that capital punishment is an abuse of human rights, according to London-based The Death Penalty Project.
The vote by parliament removes the death penalty from the 1960 Criminal and Other Offenses Act and from the 1962 Armed Forces Act.
The Criminal Offenses Amendment Bill 2022 and the Armed Forces Amendment Bill 2022 were read for the third time and passed, Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin said during proceedings on Tuesday.
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