The Criminal Offences (Amendment) Bill 2022 was enacted by Parliament, thus eliminating the death sentence from Ghanaian law.
The Bill gives the President the authority to commute the death penalty to life imprisonment.
On Tuesday, July 25, Parliament approved the Bill.
The death penalty has been included in Ghana’s Criminal Offences Code, although no President of the Fourth Republic has signed it.
The majority of human rights advocates have asked for the death penalty to be abolished.
With the enactment of the Bill, no perpetrator will face the death penalty.
The “feat” pleased Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin, who is also a lawyer, who asked the country to applaud such a gesture.
“We have had a death penalty in our statute books for well over 50 years. It has been a concern. I’m happy to say that we have by this amendment of the parent act been able to repeal that provision that deals with the death penalty. So simply put, the death penalty is no more a punishment in our statutes,” he stated.
The Effutu Member of Parliament added: “What we are saying is that God gives us life and under no circumstances should a person’s life be taken merely because of committing such an offence. That is not to say that those who take it upon themselves to take the lives of others are being encouraged to do so.”
