Killing

In Nigeria, while the death penalty exists for other crimes such as murder and treason, it is most often carried out in relation to armed robbery. Public opinion favours the death penalty as the only sure way of combating the murderous rampage of armed robbers in our midst. Yet, can this be true? The very fact that armed robbery has markedly increased since 1970 when it was first made a capital offence surely provides a strong argument against this view. Also, psychological studies have shown that criminals never believe that they will be caught. Certainty of detection would have a greater effect on the crime rate than the most severe punishments.

Apart from its lack of deterrent effect, one must not lose sight of the brutalising effect of the death penalty. Savagery begets savagery, so the existence of capital punishment may, in fact, pose and extra danger to the society it is designed to protect. As amnesty International asks:

Why does the state kill people who kill people to prove that killing people is wrong?

An even more frightening consideration is that human judgement is not infallible. There have been recurrent instances worldwide of innocent people sentenced to death and executed﹑ and the death penalty, once carried out, can never be reversed. Moreover, when there is a decree like the one recently promulgated limiting the entire period for investigation and trial of armed robbery to less than three months, such mistakes are bound to continue.

The vulnerability of all criminal justice to discrimination must also be take into account when the ability to obtain good legal representation become of the most important factors in determining the outcome of a trial, questions of social class and poverty can have a considerable effect upon the administration of justice. The wealthy and the politically well-connected are far less likely than other to even be charged, much less sentenced to death.