SOUTH AFRICA. DEATH ROW INMATES WIN FRESH SENTENCES

May 25, 2005: South Africa's Constitutional Court ruled that the country's last death row inmates be given new sentences in line with its post-apartheid constitution that outlaws capital punishment.
The court ordered that 62 prisoners be re-sentenced. The ruling confirmed a 1995 court ruling, which prosecution authorities had not yet implemented, leading four inmates to bring a new complaint against them.
"The respondents are directed to take all the steps that are necessary to ensure that all sentences of death imposed before the June 5, 1995, are set aside and replaced by an appropriate alternative sentence ... as soon as possible," the court said in a copy of the ruling. The respondents were listed as the director of public prosecutions at the Johannesburg High Court, the ministers of correctional services and justice, and President Thabo Mbeki. The case was brought before the court in March by four inmates who were sentenced to death before the 1995 ruling. (Sources: Reuters, 25/05/2005)