148 To Die, Four Females Included

A total of 148 Ghanaians are facing death penalty in various prisons across the country. Some of them have been on death row for as long as 10 years while the most recent convictions was about 14 months ago. They comprises 144 males and four females. Records available at the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS) put the breakdown of people on death row per facility as follows: Nsawam Prison, four; and Kumasi Male Prison, 14. According to the records, 172 Ghanaians are also serving life sentences. They are made up of 166 males and six females. The number of people serving life sentences per prison facility include Nsawam Male Prison, 87; Nsawam Female Prison, Six; Ankaful Annex Prison, 14; Ankaful Maximum Prison, 1. The rest are Sekondi Male Prison, Eight; Kumasi Male Prison, 21; Kete Krachi Prison, 14; and Tamale Male Prison, 19. By retaining the death penalty in the statute books, Ghana still supports death penalty even though in practices there has not been any execution since 1993. However, in practice, it would seem Ghana is against the death penalty as no execution have taken place since July 1993 when 12 prisoners who had been convicted of armed robbery or murder were executed by firing squad. The death penalty actually exists in Ghana and has been in the statute books since the application of English Common Law in the country in 1874. Ghana still retains the death penalty for armed robbery, treason and first degree murder. Executions may also be carried out by hanging, but Ghana�s last hanging was performed in 1968. In light of this, Amnesty International, Ghana has been pressuring government to abolish the death penalty in the country. In April 2000, 100 people had their death sentences commuted to life terms. On March 6, 2007, 36 prisoners who were on death row had their sentences commuted to life in prison to mark the 50th anniversary of Ghana�s independence. Nothing is hindering the prison authorities in executing the sentences. However, since their sentence is a capital punishment, the President of the Republic has to append his signature to their warrants before the sentences can be carried out. In this present dispensation where human rights have been widely accepted, it becomes extremely difficult for presidents to sign death warrants.