Sierra Leone Lawmakers Vote To Abolish Death Penalty

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

44% : With the parliament vote, Sierra Leone is set to become the latest African country to abolish the death penalty.
42% : A majority of MPs voted in favour of an amendment abolishing the death penalty, according to an AFP journalist who was present in the chamber.
41% : In May, Deputy Justice Minister Umaru Napoleon Koroma announced that the government would move to ban the death penalty to "uphold the fundamental human rights of Sierra Leoneans".
41% : Sierra Leone's 1991 constitution allows the use of the death penalty for aggravated robbery, murder, treason and mutiny.
41% : Both executions and death penalties also fell across sub-Saharan Africa last year, the rights group said.
40% : According to Amnesty International, 108 countries had completely abolished the death penalty by the end of 2020, while 144 had abolished it in law or in practice.
39% : The vote in Sierra Leone comes as the use of capital punishment has been falling across the African continent, and more countries have been outlawing the practice.
38% : A truth and reconciliation commission set up in 2005 to investigate the brutal conflict recommended abolishing the death penalty, calling it "an affront to civilised society".
37% : Capital punishment will be replaced with life imprisonment or a minimum 30-year jail term for crimes such as murder or mutiny.
36% : But Sierra Leone, which is still recovering after decades of civil war, has frequently come under fire from rights groups for keeping capital punishment on the books.
36% : But the authorities in the nation of 7.5 million people resisted immediately abolishing capital punishment, and courts condemned 84 people to death between 2016 and 2020, according to the UN.
35% : Sierra Leonean lawmakers voted to abolish the death penalty Friday, becoming the latest African country to move towards banning capital punishment.
34% : Sierra Leone had not executed anyone since 1998 but still had capital punishment on its books
32% : Malawi banned capital punishment in April, for example, and Chad scrapped the practice last year.

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