{"id":4468,"date":"2021-08-21T14:15:14","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T14:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/supreme-courts-u-turn-on-death-penalty-irks-legal-activists"},"modified":"2021-08-21T14:46:10","modified_gmt":"2021-08-21T14:46:10","slug":"supreme-courts-u-turn-on-death-penalty-irks-legal-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/supreme-courts-u-turn-on-death-penalty-irks-legal-activists","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court\u2019s U-turn on death penalty irks legal activists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Malawi<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Malawian legal activists have faulted the Malawi Supreme Court\u2019s U-turn on the abolition of the death penalty, saying it threatens the country\u2019s reputation for judicial independence.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court\u2019s April 28, 2021 original judgement in Charles Khoviwa v The Republic stated that capital punishment is unconstitutional in the country.<\/p>\n

However, the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal says it never abolished the death penalty and that High Court judges are free to sentence murder convicts to death claiming the issue was never brought before the court for consideration.<\/p>\n

In a perfected ruling, Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda, Rezine Mzikamanda, Anaclet Chipeta, Lovemore Chikopa, Frank Kapanda and Edward Twea have distanced themselves from the judgment saying Justice of Appeal Dunstain Mwaungulu (now retired) wrote his own onions.<\/p>\n

The twisting of the matter automatically means for the meantime the death penalty is applicable a development which legal activist Alexious Kamangila described as unfortunate claiming that revising a finalised judgement sets a dangerous precedent.<\/p>\n

Kamangila told Malawi24 that a judgement is considered perfected after 14 days and that for the Supreme Court to revise a judgement four months after it was published, is unprecedented, and creates suspicion that there has been outside interference in the judicial process<\/p>\n

He further said human rights campaigners celebrated abolition as a moment of Malawian leadership that would inspire other African nations to follow suit, hence the reversal comes as a significant blow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Supreme Court\u2019s ruling abolishing the death penalty was applauded domestically and around the world as a progressive judgement and a key moment in Africa\u2019s turn away from capital punishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis confusing so-called \u2018perfected\u2019 judgement throws that progress into doubt and reflects poorly on Malawi\u2019s justice system. If Khoviwa can be reversed backdoor as it has, no judgment is safe. This is nothing to do with abolition or retention of the death penalty, it is a question of rule of law.\u201d said Kamangila.<\/p>\n

The legal expert still believes abolition will come soon. \u201cThe judiciary can still review to uphold Khoviwa as earlier pronounced. \u201cIf it will not, there should be a Bill to remove the death penalty from Malawi\u2019s law for good.\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Law Professor Garton Kamchedzera, of Chancellor College, said the Supreme Court Justices had been negligent in signing such a momentous judgement into law, only to apparently change their minds and attempt to reverse course months later.<\/p>\n

He told one of the country\u2019s media houses that: \u201cOne can say that there was a failure in the discharge of duty with regard to making sure that the process was credible\u2026 It shouldn\u2019t get to the point where people are asking questions \u2018how did this happen?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In his reaction, Khumbo Soko, of Malawi Law Society, said: \u201cI think it is regrettable episode. It certainly calls for review of the protocols that the court has for managing the process of decision making. For me, a draft judgment should be thoroughly vetted by all members of the panel. These protocols, if they are there, clearly failed and let our apex court down in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

People on death row and awaiting trial for capital offences have become pawns amidst this confusion a thing which Psychologist Ndumanene Silungwe warned that such twists and turns can cause death-row syndrome having their expectations raised by the original judgement. Meanwhile, Mwaungulu has since told the local media that he only gave his colleagues a draft copy of his opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they read it and gave it to the public as the position of the court. I now see their opinions inserted in the judgement I wrote. I was entitled to see their opinions before this was made public; that never happened. Ask them. They read my judgement in my absence, but I was never shown their opinions that are coming now, why this change of heart?\u201d said Mwaungulu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. Malawian legal activists have faulted the Malawi Supreme Court\u2019s U-turn on the abolition of the death penalty, saying it threatens the country\u2019s reputation for judicial independence. The Supreme Court\u2019s April 28, 2021 original judgement in Charles Khoviwa v The Republic stated that capital punishment is unconstitutional in the country. However, the Malawi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12],"tags":[233,371,256,1832,1873,234],"class_list":["post-4468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-malawi","tag-court","tag-death-penalty","tag-kamangila","tag-malawi"],"yoast_head":"\nSupreme Court\u2019s U-turn on death penalty irks legal activists - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Malawian legal activists have faulted the Malawi Supreme Court\u2019s U-turn on the abolition of the death penalty, saying it ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/supreme-courts-u-turn-on-death-penalty-irks-legal-activists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court\u2019s U-turn on death penalty irks legal activists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Malawian legal activists have faulted the Malawi Supreme Court\u2019s U-turn on the abolition of the death penalty, saying it ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/supreme-courts-u-turn-on-death-penalty-irks-legal-activists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Malawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-21T14:15:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-21T14:46:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2021\/08\/img-6121117f19709.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"962\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"792\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/supreme-courts-u-turn-on-death-penalty-irks-legal-activists#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/supreme-courts-u-turn-on-death-penalty-irks-legal-activists\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Supreme Court\u2019s U-turn on death penalty irks legal activists\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-21T14:15:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-21T14:46:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/supreme-courts-u-turn-on-death-penalty-irks-legal-activists\"},\"wordCount\":655,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/supreme-courts-u-turn-on-death-penalty-irks-legal-activists#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2021\/08\/img-6121117f19709.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Malawi\",\"Court\",\"Death penalty\",\"Kamangila\",\"Malawi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/supreme-courts-u-turn-on-death-penalty-irks-legal-activists#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/supreme-courts-u-turn-on-death-penalty-irks-legal-activists\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/supreme-courts-u-turn-on-death-penalty-irks-legal-activists\",\"name\":\"Supreme Court\u2019s U-turn on death penalty irks legal activists - 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