The death penalty in Ghanaian law and practice: can its retention in contemporary time be justified?

Abstract

The death penalty has been on Ghana’s statute books since the inception of English common law in 1874. Ghana still retains the death penalty for armed robbery, treason and first‐degree murder. On 18 December 2007 Ghana abstained from a resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly. Subsequent events from within and outside the Ghanaian jurisdiction have generated diverged views, opinions and lines of arguments among individual citizens and groups of people, though none of the branches of Government has clearly come out to support or condemn the retention of capital punishment. The present article, in a moderate fashion, challenges the legality and justification for death penalty and advocates for its abolition in Ghana. The author, however, does not discount the seriousness of murder as a crime. He considers it highly reprehensive, both in the moral sense and in its total contempt for the personal integrity and autonomy of the victim. As such, the article provides a framework description of the law and practice in Ghana and examines the subject critically, analyzing and commenting on the relevant arguments for and against. The article draws on theoretical, jurisprudential and religious accounts to illustrate the large range of issues relating to capital punishment. The article is a contribution to the discourse on the matter and advocates the need for modern legal thinking and trends.