Governors and death warrant

By Hardball

A death sentence is obviously different from a life imprisonment sentence. But death row convicts in the country may have the impression that they have been jailed for life because death sentences are not executed.

“There are presently 3,008 condemned criminals waiting for their date with the executioners in our meagre custodial facilities. This consists of 2,952 males and 56 females,” said Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola who wants state governors to sign the death warrants of such convicts to decongest the country’s correctional facilities.

He also said: “In cases where an appeal has been exhausted and the convicts are not mounting any challenge to their conviction, the state should go ahead, to do the needful and bring closure to their cases.” The minister spoke at the opening of the Osun State Command headquarters complex of the Nigeria Correctional Service in Osogbo on July 23.

To decongest correctional facilities, he also suggested that “those who have grown old on account of the long time they have been in custody, those who are terminally ill and those who have been reformed and demonstrated exceptionally good behavior” could be freed on “compassionate grounds.” He added that the state could also “commute others’ sentences to life or a specific term in jail.”

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It is clear that the correctional facilities are overpopulated. They have a capacity for 57,278 inmates but currently hold 68,747, made up of 67,422 males and 1,325 females, the minister observed. It is alarming that 50,992 inmates, 74 per cent of the prison population, are awaiting trial. This situation needs to be addressed.  Only 17,755 inmates, who constitute just 26 per cent, are convicts.

Indeed, there is a serious problem when convicts lawfully sentenced to death remain endlessly on death row because state governors are unwilling to sign death warrants.  Death row congestion, which compounds prison overpopulation, is inexcusable. As long as the country’s justice system accommodates the death penalty, there is no justification for keeping condemned convicts waiting.

It is complex enough to arrive at a death decision, and the complexity should not be further complicated by indecision when it comes to executing the decision. If judges are able to reach a death decision, state governors should be able to sign death warrants.

The reality is that the law of the land prescribes death for particular crimes. It contradicts the law when state governors fail to sign death warrants, and thereby contribute to death row congestion and, by extension, prison overpopulation.