The move brings to an end, a legacy of capital punishment spanning many decades. More than ten years ago, the same Court, struck down mandatory death sentences, opening the door for re-sentencing hearings in which hundreds of condemned convicts, were humanised. Malawi has been most reluctant in its application of the death penalty. The last execution, in the Republic, was in 1992. Though the courts continued to churn out death sentences, by the dozens, successive Malawi Presidents have not signed any death warrants. A moratorium of sorts has been in place against the death penalty.
The aforesaid development, is refreshing, especially to those of us who campaign and defend against the death penalty, almost, on a daily basis, and yearn for the reform of the jurisprudence around the same question. But such is the character, of the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal. It’s the same court, that annulled a presidential election not so ago, something very rare, in Africa, where rulers, generally, own judges and Magistrates, and control virtually, all arms of government. True, the Malawian example is likely not to be followed here. Our first President signed death warrants like pay cheques! So did our second, third fourth, and now fifth, Presidents. Our Presidents have an obsession with the death penalty, unrivaled everywhere.
