Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has expressed immense delight as Ghana has abolished the death penalty law.
He called it a remarkable “feat” and urged the nation to celebrate this historic gesture.
On Tuesday, July 25, Parliament passed the Criminal Offences (Amendment) Bill 2022, effectively eradicating the death penalty from Ghana’s laws.
The Bill empowers the President to commute death penalty sentences into life imprisonment.
While the death penalty had been present in Ghana’s Criminal Offences Code, no President in the Fourth Republic had ever signed an execution order, prompting calls from human rights advocates for its expunction.
With the passage of the Bill, offenders will no longer face the punishment of death.
Addressing the press in Parliament after the passage of the Bill, Mr. Afenyo Markin, also representing Efuttu as a lawmaker, stated, “For well over 50 years, we have had a death penalty in our statute books, and it has been a concern. I’m happy to say that we have, by this amendment of the parent act, been able to repeal that provision that deals with the death penalty. So simply put, the death penalty is no more a punishment in our statutes.”
He emphasized the value of human life, asserting that no person’s life should be taken simply because they committed an offense.
“I’m happy to say that we have by this amendment of the parent act been able to repeal that provision that deals with the death penalty. So simply put, the death penalty is no more a punishment in our statutes,” he stated.
He clarified that the abolition of the death penalty does not encourage those who take the lives of others, but rather upholds the sanctity of life, recognizing it as a gift from God that should not be taken away through state-sanctioned executions.
“What we are saying is that God gives us life and under no circumstances should a person’s life be taken merely because of the commissioning of such an offense.”