President of Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa

ZIMBABWE: PRESIDENT EMMERSON MNANGAGWA SIGNS BILL ABOLISHING THE DEATH PENALTY

December 31, 2024:

Zimbabwe officially abolished the death penalty on December 31, 2024, after President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed into law an act that will commute to jail time the sentences of prisoners on death row.
At least 60 people were known to be under a death sentence in Zimbabwe at the end of 2023. The new law spares them.
There has been a moratorium on executions in the southern African country since 2005 although courts have continued to hand down the death sentence for crimes including murder, treason and terrorism.
The Death Penalty Abolition Act, published in Government Gazette on December 31, says courts can no longer deliver a sentence of capital punishment for any offense and any existing death sentences would need to be commuted to jail time. However, one provision says the suspension of the death penalty may be lifted during a state of emergency.
Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe's leader since 2017, has publicly spoken of his opposition to capital punishment. He has cited his experience of being sentenced to death – later changed to 10 years in prison – for blowing up a train during the war of independence from white minority rule. He also has used presidential amnesties to commute death sentences to life in prison.