WHEN THOUSANDS WAIT TO DIE
It is a violation of rights to keep people interminably on death row
The use of capital punishment as the ultimate deterrence for crimes involving loss of lives is replete with yet unresolved moral questions. Those who insist on its efficacy argue that the fear of death is man’s highest nightmare and that those who know that their crimes will attract the death sentence would think twice before killing another person. Those with the contrary viewpoint insist that hardened criminals will not be deterred by the fear of death as a consequence of their criminal acts. The knowledge that the consequence of their homicidal crime is predetermined death could in fact make such criminals more brutal.
This latter argument goes further to indicate that the state, by resorting to capital punishment, risks being guilty of the same killing for which it is punishing those condemned to death for crimes involving the loss of lives. If the state kills the condemned murderer, the argument goes, it reduces the population by two instead of one. Moreover, the state ought to exercise greater moral restraint by presenting a more humane, forgiving and corrective disposition even towards those who kill others. Therefore, the moral conundrum of the capital punishment argument encumbers the state with a huge burden. Should the state kill those who kill or spare them in order to exemplify a higher morality?
This debate continues to rage among sociologists, moral philosophers and jurisprudence experts without the prospect of an easy resolution. In the interim, Nigeria has an urgent crisis in its burgeoning number of inmates on death row. At the Kirikiri maximum security custodial centre in Lagos alone, 353 inmates are on death row for crimes ranging from murder, armed robbery to treason. In all, the population of death row inmates in custodial and correctional institutions across the country is about 4,000. Whatever may be the justifications, prolonged solitude is not only detrimental for the psychology of death row inmates but also negates the international treaties, declarations and other documents to which Nigeria is a signatory.
It is an inherent violation on their rights and dignity to keep people interminably on death row, especially for cases that have been concluded by the Supreme Court. Some of these condemned persons have spent years waiting to die in the hands of the law. They live in uncertainty on a day-to-day basis. Excuses for the delay in executing the death sentences range from shortage of hang men to the lack of will on the part of state governors who have the ultimate power to confirm, commute or ameliorate the death sentences.
The growing population of those whom the state says must die is an indictment of our mechanism for wielding the ultimate power of life and death which is the highest moral definition of sovereign power. Our state governors must see this situation as a serious challenge requiring urgent but delicate exercise and action. The options are within reach. Depending on the gravity of the offence, governors should consider exercising the prerogative of mercy to commute some death sentences to life or order speedy execution of those who must die.
In the latter instance, state authorities should explore different options to alleviate reliance on the ancient and gruesome recourse to hangmen using mechanical guillotines. Governors should not be shy to go to their respective state houses of assembly to seek approval for other modes of authorised but dignified execution of qualified death row inmates. Some of these options should include firing squads, lethal injections, the electric chair or poison pills.
There is of course no pleasant way to take human life by sovereign authority. But in reality, of all the powers conferred on leaders, that over life or death is the most sacrosanct and sobering.
