Zimbabwe has 62 death row inmates as hangman remains elusive
News Reporter
Zimbabwe has 62 death row inmates and the southern African country fails to find a hang man to conduct executions as anti-death sentence sentiments grow, TheNewsReportLive has learnt.
Although the country’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa is against the death penalty after commuting death row inmates to life imprisonment in 2018, Zimbabwe is still to abolish executions.
Despite being sentenced to the death by hanging, Zimbabwe has not executed anyone since 2005.
There is no hangman at present.
In Zimbabwe the 62 death row inmates are kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours.
They have only one hour of exercises while their families are not informed if they are still alive, according to Veritas, a constitutional watchdog.
Zimbabwe joins the world in commemorating the International Day Against Death Penalty.
Veritas has proposed re-trial of all inmates sentenced to death in a model law, presented as part of its latest push for the abolishment of the death sentence in Zimbabwe.
“Clause 2 of the bill will prohibit any court from imposing the death penalty for any criminal offence, prohibit the Supreme Court from confirming a death sentence on appeal and prohibit anyone from carrying out a death sentence,” said organisation’s technical consultant Brian Crozier.
A public survey by the Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI), a non-profit research organisation revealed that although 56.2 percent of Zimbabwe’s population favour the death sentence, 80% would accept abolition if government decided on it.
