Hanging the innocent

Trust Pravin, the quintessential and consummate criminal lawyer that he is, to come out shooting from the hips on highly controversial and emotive subjects as he once again did recently on the death penalty.

A largely balanced article I agree it was, though netizens were of the opinion that it did not get to the crux of the matter, which largely revolves around the specious canonisation of imagined judicial infallibility.

Sometime in 2006, the then Commissioner of Prisons released a statement that stated the obvious — even if it was a conservative estimate. In it, he said that research had shown that 20 per cent of the inmates were totally innocent of the charges they stood convicted of.

Three years earlier, a record number of the very judicial officers who had convicted netizens in the various stages of the system had been sent packing by the Government, leaving the victims of their corrupt tendencies languishing in neti. Twenty per cent means that 10,000 chaps are marooned in our penal system as IDPs (Innocent and Deprived Prisoners).

Posthumous pardon

Let me draw an analogy here.

On May 28, last year, something really startling unravelled in the United States. A man hanged way back in 1922 for allegedly raping and murdering a 12-year-old girl was posthumously pardoned after it emerged that crucial evidence given in trial against him was hopelessly flawed. Through out his trial, Colin Campbell Ross had maintained his innocence, a stance he upheld even as he was being led to the gallows in tears.

What emerged was that the judge who presided over the case was so appalled at the crime that he failed to intrinsically appraise all evidence. If that could, and does happen in a country reputed to have the best criminal justice system, what do you think has been happening in our admittedly corruption prone dispensation?

Pravin is spot on that some chaps have been sleeping on the job since 1987, and that any inordinate delay in executing a lawful sentence subjects the convicts and their relatives to untold mental and psychological anguish. I’d rather say that that lacuna could turn out to be a blessing in disguise if the Government does consider using the mechanisms of the TJRC to ascertain the genuine offenders behind bars awaiting execution. A pal from K44 (Kamiti Prison) once told me about a fellow awaiting execution for stealing a loaf of bread. That leaves one wondering whether the criminal justice system is pre-disposed towards a certain class or if it does equitably mete out justice across the board.

Out of the many murders that reportedly happen in our leafy neighbourhoods, how many have ever sent the nabobs to the gallows? Should it not prick the collective conscience of the nation that pickies and ngeta boys are lined for the gallows while those who pilfer billions meant for buying drugs and water chemicals frolic in far away pristine beaches?

As Pravin rightly surmised, the death penalty is a blight on modernity and serves no useful purpose. It is barbaric, archaic and inhuman. The penalty is not a deterrent to crime and neither is it rehabilitative, but retributive in scope and application.

Abolish death penalty

In Korea and China, the penalty is felt to deal with all crimes across the social strata since even corruption — that Kenyans’ past time — is a non-bailable capital offence.

Coming to our present set-up vis-‡-vis the international crimes bill which was recently domesticated by Parliament, a pertinent point of note is that those found guilty of the heinous atrocities witnessed early last year will be subjected to a maximum sentence of life in prison while the guy in that secluded building at a secluded corner in K44 awaits the noose for pinching a loaf of bread!

I do concur with Pravin therefore that our Parliament moves post-haste to abolish the death penalty as Rwanda recently did upon realising that those who bankrolled the 1994 genocide were largely coming out of the Arusha Tribunal with slapstick sentences while the poor faced death in the gallows.

Think of the innocent 20 per cent and let your voices be heard.