May the State Kill?: A Challenge to the Death Penalty

So few issues in modem times have divided citizens of many African countries as the issue of death penalty. Arguments on pros and cons are often made, but mainly on the side of retaining the death penalty. After the publication of May the State Kill?, my experience is that those who are well informed of the implications of the law of death penalty are in favour of abolishing it. In fact, 99% of those who read the book are in favour of abolishing death penalty and replacing it with detention for life. I have been present in several workshops on this issue. Those who stick to the execution of "criminals" have few arguments. The main one is, "Someone has killed, he must be killed, etc..." What about those who are innocently condemned? Ignored. The request for the book was very high. Within two years, I had to reprint it twice. The first edition was written and printed in a rather short time. I wanted in fact to halt the pending execution of a good number of people on death row in Uganda. Maybe 1 succeeded because since April 1999, no execution has taken place. However, one success has been achieved: one issue of the Constitutional Review Commission at present collecting evidence, is the reconsideration of the law of death penalty.