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Thread: Zimbabwe

  1. #1
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    Zimbabwe

    Zimbabwe plans to cut back on hangings, death penalty only for 'extreme violence'

    HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe is considering cutting back on hangings according to a proposed new constitution, reserving the death penalty for only extreme cases of aggravated murder, a government official said Wednesday.

    Constitutional Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga said only killers who commit "gratuitous violence to the extent it becomes sickening" will be hanged.

    In a compromise between human rights groups and traditional supporters of capital punishment, it will be up to judges to rule on the level of violence used.

    Matinenga told The Associated Press that despite calls for its abolition, the death penalty cannot be "totally scrapped because there are murders that make you shudder and ask: What was the person thinking?"

    Just this month a man was sentenced to death for relentlessly hunting down his teenage sister-in-law, assaulting her, strangling her to death and throwing her mangled body down a mine shaft in what the court ruled was brutality with "actual intent."

    In another case, an off-duty soldier gunned down five people he accused of taunting him in a bar.

    The fate of at least 61 prisoners on death row will be considered on individual merits if the measure is adopted in a constitutional referendum that may be held in September, he said.

    Rights groups argue every criminal killing is extreme violence and say it will be open to wide interpretations in courts asked to differentiate between axing deaths in village disputes, anger-fueled shootings and cold-blooded, premeditated murder.

    No executions have been carried out under the three-year old coalition government. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's former opposition Movement for Democratic Change party has voiced its disapproval of hanging.

    Execution orders must be signed by the coalition's co-ministers of justice and approved by President Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

    Executions were suspended for a decade after Mugabe met with Pope John Paul II in 1988. During the moratorium, scores of inmates' death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment on grounds that they suffered inhumane mental torment awaiting execution.

    Matinenga said laws already exist for prisoners to appeal for a death sentence to be altered to a life sentence.

    In 2010, the justice ministry said it was looking for a new hangman.

    The last executioner retired after carrying out his last execution in 2004, saying he was struggling with his conscience in the face of superstitious local custom and beliefs in avenging ancestral spirits. After that, authorities reportedly sought a foreign executioner from Asia.

    Human rights groups in 2010 cited a Supreme Court plea by a death row inmate who said he and other convicted killers were "losing their minds" in uncertainty over when jailers would call them for hangings at dawn on gallows of scaffolding and wood dating from the colonial era.

    Official records show 78 people have been executed in Zimbabwe since the African country won independence from Britain in 1980.

    http://www.toledoblade.com/World/201...-violence.html

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Zimbabwe to scrap death penalty... for women

    The final draft constitution spares female murderers from the hangman’s noose as it states that no woman shall face the death penalty.

    The draft, completed on Wednesday, partially abolishes the death penalty with the exception being in “cases of aggravated murder”.

    It also abolishes the death penalty for those under 21 years of age and those above 70.

    Human rights activists and organisations, including Amnesty International have been lobbying government to abolish capital punishment and the exemption of women appears to be a compromise to appease the activists.

    Section 4.5 of the new constitution reads in part: “A law may permit the death penalty to be imposed only on a person convicted of murder committed in aggravating circumstances, and the penalty must not be imposed or carried out on a woman.”

    But a person sentenced to death will have the right to seek pardon.

    The courts will have the discretion over whether or not to impose the penalty.

    Abortion remains illegal unless if the pregnancy is terminated in accordance with the law.

    Fred Misi, the national chairperson of Varume Svinurai, a men’s representative organisation, said it was unfair for the new constitution to protect women only from the death penalty.

    “I think it’s not fair,” he said.

    “We are saying all human beings are equal before the law but if you then say a woman who commits murder will be protected and a man who commits murder is hanged, then there is no equality.

    “Obviously it’s not fair.

    “We were trying to eliminate discrimination against men and women but once you separate the 2, there will be discrimination.”

    (Source: New Zimbabwe)
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  3. #3
    Senior Member Member Diggler's Avatar
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    Women can be killers.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styllou_Christofi

    Modus operandi similar in two crimes. Equality means equal not special rules for people we like and identify with.

    Diggler
    Diggling for all he is worth

  4. #4
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    ‘No plans to hang death row inmates’

    Zimbabwe recently hired a hangman raising speculation that the country could be resuming executions, but Machingauta assured a ZPS stakeholders conference at Harare Central Prison a fortnight ago that no executions would be carried out “anytime soon”.

    Zimbabwe currently has 77 inmates on death row, including two females.

    “We have not carried executions for the past 12 years so we are in no hurry,” said Machingauta. “We actually hope that the 77 inmates will get their reprieve. We also stand guided by what Minister (of Justice Patrick) Chinamasa said that all death row cases will be decided by cabinet.”

    About 78 people have been executed in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.

    The last executions were carried out on June 13 2003, when Stephen Chidhumo, Elias Chauke, William Mukurugunye and John Nyamazana were hanged.

    The four had been convicted of murder without extenuating circumstances and their execution took place without any warning to their families.

    Chinamasa recently said the appointment of a new hangman does not mean any of the death row inmates would be executed and government would instead push for the sentences to be commuted to life in prison.

    The hangman’s job had been vacant and government had been struggling to find a replacement since the previous one retired in 2005 despite repeated adverts in the local press.

    The draft constitution that would be tested in a referendum on March 16 retains the death penalty, but prohibits executions of women and anyone under the age of 21 years or over the age of 70 years.

    ZPS commissioner retired Major-General Paradzai Zimondi said prisons were holding 16 902 inmates.

    He said only 587 of these were women and 124 were juveniles.

    http://www.theindependent.co.zw/2013...h-row-inmates/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  5. #5
    Senior Member CnCP Addict Stro07's Avatar
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    Court upholds death sentences against 10

    The Supreme Court yesterday upheld death sentences against 10 people accused of committing gruesome and callous murders around the country.Njabulo Tshuma, Vusa Mugobo Ndlovu, Zacharia Amos Simango, Nicholas Ncube, Michael Goodluck Nleya, Bright Kwashira, Cloudius Mutawo, Farai Lawrence Ndlovu, Wellington Gadzira and Norman Sibanda were all found guilty of murder with actual intent.

    Deputy Chief Justice Luke Malaba, sitting with five others, found no extenuating circumstances for the 10 after they all appealed against convictions and sentences. Nleya pleaded guilty to killing Blessed Msebele, a nine-year-old boy in a busy area in the Mnyamana area in Plumtree the on October 8, 2010.

    He gave a graphic description of the murder.

    “Before I killed him I said God will forgive me,” he said.

    “I assaulted him on the head and at the back of the neck, he then fell down. I assaulted him again and he died. I fetched firewood and made a fire and I threw him into the fire so that there would be no evidence.”

    Kwashira and an accomplice were convicted of murder with actual intent to kill and robbery of Ommund Peter Sivertsen (71), by the High Court on July 3, 2006.

    He was aged between 19 and 20 years at the time of the offence.

    Mutawo of Maushe Village under Chief Njelele in Gokwe, another youth aged 19 at the time of the offence was sentenced to death for murdering his father who was 71 years.

    Ndlovu (23) and Gadzira (37) were both convicted of murder for killing Michael Sunderland (37) and Geoffrey Andrew Povey (65).

    The State’s case was that the two told the deceased that there was a gold rush near Kwekwe River and got into the back of the deceased’s motor vehicle.

    They put cyanide poison into water bottles that were at the back of the vehicle, resulting in the death of the two after they drank the poisoned water.

    Tshuma and Vusa, who are nephews, were found guilty of murder of Timothy Mugobo with actual intent. Mugobo was Vusa’s elder brother.

    Ncube (25) of number 1459 DRC, Hwange killed his wife because she wanted to divorce him.

    http://www.herald.co.zw/court-uphold...es-against-10/

  6. #6
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Zimbabwe: 16 Death Row Inmates Challenge Law

    At least 16 death row inmates, who have spent between four and 18 years awaiting their fate, have challenged their pending execution on the basis that the current legal framework does not allow anyone to be hanged.

    The prisoners also argue that they have overstayed on death row, a situation they say is a violation of their constitutional rights.

    Fourteen of the inmates want the court to remove them from death row and commute their sentences to life imprisonment.

    Two of them, on separate cases, have challenging the death penalty on the basis that Zimbabwe does not have an Act of Parliament stipulating how capital punishment may be implemented in terms of the new supreme law.

    The duo's argument is premised on Section 48 of the Constitution that guarantees everyone's right to life.

    Section 48 (1) and (2) of the Constitution, according to the prisoners' lawyer Mr Tendai Biti of Biti Law Chambers, states that a law shall be put in place to specify the circumstances under which one may be sentenced to death.

    The Section reads:

    "Section 48

    (1)Every person has the right to life.

    (2) A law may permit the death penalty to be imposed only on a person convicted of murder committed in aggravating circumstances, and:

    (a)The law must permit the court a discretion whether or not to impose the penalty;

    (b)The penalty may be carried out only in accordance with a final judgment of a competent court;

    (c)The penalty must not be imposed on a person;

    (i)Who was less than twenty-one years old when the offence was committed; or

    (ii)Who is more than seventy years old;

    (d)The penalty must not be imposed or carried out on a woman; and;

    (e)The person sentenced must have a right to seek pardon or commutation of the penalty from the President."

    The Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and the Attorney General of Zimbabwe are cited as respondents in the Constitutional cases.

    One of the prisoners, Emmanuel Dolosi, in his founding affidavit argued that in the absence of an Act of Parliament regulating death penalty, no one should be sent to the gallows.

    "It is my respectful contention that the law envisaged in Section 48 (2), which is the law that may permit the death penalty to be imposed, has not yet been passed by Parliament," he said.

    "Because that law has not yet been enacted, it is my respectful contention that at the present moment in Zimbabwe, there is no law that provides for capital punishment and, therefore, sentencing me to death, as was done by Justice Mwayera, was wrong.

    "Put in simple terms, until the law envisaged in Section 48 (2) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe is enacted by Parliament, no one can be executed in Zimbabwe.

    "That being so, it is my respectful contention that my right to life was infringed by the High Court of Zimbabwe which sentenced me to the penalty of death when the law envisaged in Section 48 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe has not been passed."

    The 14 prisoners want capital punishment imposed on them in their different cases to be quashed on the basis of the time they have spent waiting to be executed.

    "As the above schedule will show, the majority of us the applicants have been incarcerated for periods that range from six years to 20 years and we have been on death row for periods that range from four years to 18 years," they argued.

    "It is our respectful contention that subjecting us to such a lengthy period on death row results in permanent stress, constant fear, resulting in extreme physical, psychological and emotional harm.

    "Our contention in this matter is that we are entitled to the right to human dignity protected by Section 51 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe. In addition, we are entitled to protection from torture or cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," they said.

    "We contend that subjecting us to lengthy periods of imprisonment amounts to a breach of our right to human dignity and our right not to be subjected to physical or psychological torture or to cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

    The 14 argued that life imprisonment would be appropriate under the circumstances.

    "That being so, because of the torture we have been subjected to whilst waiting for a long time on death row, it will be unconstitutional to execute us and, therefore, our sentence should now be commuted to that of life imprisonment," argued the prisoners.

    The 16 were convicted of murder cases committed in different places and periods and they were all sentenced to death by the High Court.

    The Supreme Court confirmed the penalties, but no executions have been carried.

    At least 74 prisoners are on death row in Zimbabwe and for more than 12 years no one has been executed.

    http://allafrica.com/stories/201601110821.html
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  7. #7
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Zimbabwe considers scrapping death penalty

    HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's vice president, who once faced the death penalty, says the country will consider scrapping capital punishment, local media reported.

    Speaking at an international meeting of justice ministers against the death penalty in Rome, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is also the justice minister, said the country is close to abolishing its capital punishment, the state-run Herald newspaper reported.

    "We will not hesitate to expunge capital punishment from our laws," said Mnangagwa. "The death penalty is, in fact, a flagrant violation of the right to life and dignity."

    Mnangagwa was himself sentenced to death when Zimbabwe was white-minority-ruled Rhodesia, only avoiding it because he was too young at the time. He was arrested in 1965 for blowing up locomotives during Zimbabwe's anti-Rhodesian war and served 10 years in jail after authorities ruled he was too young to be hanged, according to the Zimbabwean parliamentary website.

    The country of 13 million has nearly 100 death row inmates. The last execution was in 2005, partly because the country cannot find anyone willing to take up the hangman's position.

    Last month, a group of death row inmates approached Zimbabwe's Constitutional Court in a bid to have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.

    "Because of the torture we have been subjected to whilst waiting for a long time on death row, it will be unconstitutional to execute us," Cuthbert Chawira, a murder convict on death row for 15 years, said in an affidavit submitted in court. Prison guards regularly taunt inmates about their imminent executions, he said. Constitutional Court judges are yet to rule on the matter.

    Zimbabwe's constitution says the death penalty only applies to males aged between 21 and 70 convicted of "murder committed in aggravating circumstances."

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/...h-penalty.html

  8. #8
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Mugabe, Mnangagwa clash over death penalty

    PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe yesterday disclosed that he had on several occasions clashed with a section of Cabinet ministers led by Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa over how to deal with capital punishment, which he said should be retained on the statutes to allow for the hanging of some convicted murderers.

    In a speech to mark Heroes Day commemorations at the National Heroes Acre, Mugabe also appealed to the public to take up the hangman’s post, which has remained vacant for over two decades.

    “We are still debating whether to remove capital punishment. My Cabinet is divided about that and Mnangagwa wants it to be removed, but we are still considering. We now have many people on the death row,” Mugabe said.

    Mnangagwa, who doubles as Justice minister, is on record describing capital punishment as inhuman and wants it abolished.

    “We are failing to get a hangman. If there is anyone brave, they should apply and we will appoint,” Mugabe said yesterday.

    The death penalty has remained a controversial issue in Zimbabwe and the new Constitution exempts women murderers from execution while only allowing for certain male criminals to be hanged.

    Meanwhile, Mugabe, who is preparing for re-election in next year’s general elections, said his government was contemplating setting up a new fund to cater for the welfare of war veterans, as most were living in a sorry state.

    “We should create a huge fund to assist war veterans and their dependants. (Finance minister Patrick) Chinamasa is failing to raise enough revenue for all this due to the dwindling tax base,” he said.

    Mugabe said they will also consider having the rich donate to such a fund.

    “I know some people have money. The rich should come forward and donate to the fund. We need that fund to help families of war veterans,” he said.

    Currently, war veterans are being catered for under the War Veterans ministry headed by Tshinga Dube. In 1997, war veterans caused a major economic haemorrhage after the government succumbed to pressure and paid them a whopping ZW$50 000 one-off payment each under the hastily-organised arrangement.

    Mugabe also called on the military and police to be more disciplined and learn to co-exist.

    This follows a recent incident where soldiers and police clashed in Harare’s central business district after traffic police reportedly clamped an army truck.

    Mugabe said soon after the incident, he summoned top military and police bosses to his office and read the riot act.

    “If soldiers and police are working at cross-purposes, how will they be able to stop civilians working at cross-purposes when they (security services) are doing the same?” the President further said.

    https://www.newsday.co.zw/2017/08/15...death-penalty/

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