Kenyan prisoners on demise row weren’t deterred by the specter of the demise penalty: new analysis findings

Kenya’s last execution of a prisoner was in 1987. However the nation nonetheless hosts a demise row inhabitants of practically 600. Nearly all had been sentenced to demise for homicide or theft with violence. New sentences are handed down yearly.

Kenya is an “abolitionist de facto” state: the demise penalty remains to be current in regulation and individuals are sentenced to demise, however they aren’t executed. At the moment, 17 of the African Union’s 54 member states are abolitionist de facto – they haven’t carried out an execution of a prisoner for a minimum of 10 years. Simply 11 are absolutely retentionist, that means that they sentence folks to demise and have carried out executions.

Advocates for the demise penalty will usually argue that it deters potential offenders from committing critical crime – even when a rustic has not executed anybody for years.

However our recent research, Residing with a Loss of life Sentence in Kenya: Prisoners’ Experiences of Crime, Punishment and Loss of life Row, suggests this isn’t true.

We spoke to 671 inmates who had been sentenced to demise in Kenya. Simply over 1 / 4 had had their sentences commuted to life. Most stated that they had no concept that their crimes would possibly appeal to a demise sentence.

Our findings assist analysis completed in different international locations: that the specter of being sentenced to demise seems to have little bearing on how folks behave. In addition they assist the argument that abolishing the demise penalty wouldn’t result in a spike in violent crime in Kenya.

Learn extra: Why has Kenya not abolished the death penalty? Habit and inertia

According to deterrence theorists, potential offenders shall be deterred by the demise penalty as a result of they make rational decisions about whether or not to offend. They use data in regards to the related legal guidelines and punishments, after which weigh up the prices and advantages of offending. They are going to be deterred in the event that they assume it’s seemingly they are going to be caught and convicted, and that the attainable punishment outweighs the rewards.

Our research discovered that typically, these preconditions for being deterred from committing capital crimes weren’t met.

The analysis

We studied the experiences of prisoners serving demise sentences in Kenya. The work was completed via the Loss of life Penalty Challenge, working with Oxford College’s Death Penalty Research Unit. Our colleagues on the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights carried out interviews with 671 prisoners (33 had been ladies) sentenced to demise for homicide (44% of the overall) and theft with violence (56%).

Many of the prisoners had been poorly educated. Individuals primarily used native languages. They may not have been capable of perceive data distributed in Kenya’s nationwide languages: English and Swahili. This may occasionally clarify why most didn’t know that the demise penalty was the seemingly punishment for his or her offence. Our research discovered that simply 1% of our pattern stated they knew the demise penalty was a punishment accessible for his or her offence in regulation.

As well as, solely 4% of these convicted of theft and eight% of these convicted of homicide stated that they had thought of the potential for being sentenced to demise. Nevertheless, 48% of murderers and 69% of robbers stated that they had contemplated being despatched to jail earlier than committing the crime.

The research additionally challenged the declare that offenders make rational decisions about whether or not to offend, a minimum of in instances of murder. For instance, the commonest causes given by contributors for committing homicide had been anger (27%), provocation (23%), self-defence (17%) and excessive emotional conditions (13%).

Lower than a 3rd of contributors stated data of the regulation and attainable punishments had affected their behaviour in any respect. Total, few prisoners who dedicated crimes that resulted in a sentence of demise had, on the time of the offence, thought of this potential consequence.

Shifts throughout Africa

In 2022, three sub-Saharan international locations abolished the demise penalty: the Central African Republic in June, Equatorial Guinea in September and Zambia in December.

In Zambia in 2016, Cornelius Mweetwa – a former lawyer and police officer who’s now minister for the nation’s Southern Province – argued that deterrence did not “work”.

He famous three assumptions that deterrence theorists use: that individuals know the penalties for crimes; that they will management their actions; and that individuals make choices to commit against the law based mostly on logic not ardour.

Nevertheless, the three assumptions often will not be true. Subsequently … folks nonetheless commit these crimes.

Mweetwa made one other argument that additionally got here via in our analysis. That the tough, socially disadvantaged demise row regime, coupled with condemned prisoners’ “constant awareness of their impending execution” meant they had been being subjected to merciless and inhuman punishment as outlined by the UN Convention Against Torture.

Whereas there could also be some variations between Zambia and Kenya, most international locations within the area may have related ranges of relative deprivation, each materials and academic. Subsequently, the rationales utilized in Zambia resulting in abolition would equally apply to Kenya.

Subsequent steps

Kenya has been equivocal on its place on the demise penalty. Whereas varied makes an attempt have been made to maneuver in the direction of abolition, and mass commutations have taken a whole bunch of prisoners off demise row, the nation continues to condemn folks to demise.

Our report displays on the histories, decision-making and jail experiences of these topic to the demise penalty in Kenya. It offers a chance to raised perceive the lives fractured by this method.

And our findings are clear: abolition of the demise penalty in Kenya received’t result in an increase in violent crime. The nation ought to, subsequently, take the obvious step forward and abolish the demise penalty in regulation.