GHANA. A-G WANTS DEATH PENALTY ABOLISHED

October 25, 2005: the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice joined other key players in the administration of Ghana’s justice system in a call for the abolition of the death penalty. The other institutions: the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ); the Ghana branch of the Amnesty International and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) made the call at a public symposium in Accra.
The symposium, “Assessing the death penalty in Ghana”, was organised by the CHRAJ and recommended that the ultimate punishment be substituted with alternatives such as long sentences without parole. At the event, Minister of Justice and Attorney General Ayikoi Otto said the death penalty system was not “fool-proof”, for not all those convicted could be said to have actually taken human life due to the fact that circumstantial evidence could also lead an innocent person to the gallows. (Sources: Daily Graphic, 26/10/2005)