Amnesty International, the world-renowned human rights advocacy group, has questioned the basis of the death sentence a Sekondi High Court has pronounced on the two convicted persons in the murder case of the four kidnapped Takoradi girls.
Samuel Abotsey, Campaign Coordinator of Amnesty International Ghana, could not comprehend why Ghana should still have death penalty in its law books.
“In Ghana, the law still permits the judges to make that pronouncement and so we cannot force the judges or the country, but we believe that the continuous use of the death penalty is not the way to go because evidence has shown that…..there could be mistakes in evidence gathering, there could be mistakes in the investigation; the wrong people could be charged,” Agbotsey told Citi news in a report monitored by GhanaWeb on Saturday.
He went on: “There have been people that have been sentenced to death, some actually killed, but fresh evidence showed that they were not guilty of that crime. So, our belief is that it is better for us to keep the people on life sentence or a fixed-term sentence so that if there is fresh evidence emerging tomorrow, these people can be exonerated.”
Samuel Udeotuk Wills and John Orji, were found guilty by a Sekondi High Court on charges of conspiracy to murder and murder.
The two convicts have the right of appeal within a 30-day window.
Source: www.ghanaweb.
