REVISITING
THE DEATH PENALTY QUESTION
Udo
Jude Ilo There is a raging debate in
Five issues arise in the
application of death penalty viz the institutions
that prosecute and convict the criminal (criminal justice sector); the death
row condition; the mind of the convict; the mode of carrying out the
sentence; the state of the nation that carries out the death sentence and the
validity of the death sentence. These issues will be addressed one by one. The Criminal Justice
Sector This includes the police,
the judiciary, ministries of Justice and the prisons. There is a general
agreement in this country that the police are inefficient. The inadequate
training, bad pay pack and very bad conditions of service have made the
police a laughing stock of the nation and the synonym of incompetence. The
manner of arrest as carried out by the police portrays lack of diligence and
carelessness in investigations. Many at times, innocent Nigerians are
arrested and will have to come up with thousands of naira to purchase their
freedom. Sometimes some of these individuals who are not able to come up with
bribes metamorphose to suspects and find themselves arraigned in court by
overzealous policemen for crimes they do not understand. Incidence of armed
robbery in The trial process is
another defective aspect of our criminal justice system. What counts most
time is not the innocence of the victim but the soundness of the defense
team. A bad lawyer can send an innocent man to the gallows. The
unavailability of evidence, absence of witnesses and even the disposition of
the Judge are the variables that determine who dies or lives. Such a system
is not good enough to be trusted with such a sensitive duty of determining
who goes to the gallows. History has indicted the justice system not just in The Death Row Condition
It is a very heavy
psychological burden for one to be made to realize that he is so evil that the
nation and his people find him not only irredeemable but also unfit to live.
The death row condition is a very touching one. Men and women waiting
endlessly for the hangman’s rope, not knowing when the call will come. Living
in perpetual fear of death for a crime, which the society pushed them on to.
The treatment meted out to death row prisoners
and the attendant psychological torture amounts to inhuman treatment and the
Supreme Court in the case of Peter Nemi v The
Attorney General Lagos State said that a death row prisoner has fundamental
rights. The point here is that death row condition as practiced in The Mind of the Convict
Capital offenders are seen
as societal miscreants. Devil incarnates who are only good for the gallows.
The argument about the death penalty has not adequately addressed the remote
and the immediate cause of the actions of the capital offenders. The Nigerian
environment holds much hardship. The economy is bad and the future looks so
bleak. Unemployment, bad educational system and absence of social welfare are
our constant companions. Yet the class of Nigerian leaders lives in opulence
and wealth no matter the source is glorified. There is a tendency that in
this kind of environment, people will want to survive. A capital crime in Killing him cannot solve
the problem but giving him ‘life’ can make all the difference. He is a
brother in need and a product of our valueless system. The Mode of Carrying Out Death Penalty
In The Validity of Death
Penalty and the State of the Nation that Implements it What benefit can a State
get from the implementation of Capital Punishment? What does the victim of
murder gain when the convict is killed? What will the family of the victim
benefit from the death of the convict outside satisfying the animalistic
instinct for vengeance? Is the convict truly irredeemable? These are question
that must be answered by the death penalty proponents. The United Nations in
its findings stated that it has not been proven that death penalty deters
people from committing crimes. In The death of the convict
does not add anything to the family of the deceased or the deceased person.
Paying back life for life involves that the State degenerates to the level of
the capital offender in other to inflict the capital punishment. The convict
is not irredeemable. Facts are on the ground to show that they can be
reformed. What moral standing can The content of death
penalty application is not foolproof enough to guarantee fairness and neither
does it end crimes. It is only a reflection of the vengeful tendencies of
victims and the state failure to adequately take care of
her own. The solution to |