As debate on death penalty ranges on, the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP)-Blantyre Synod says the synod is against death penalty describing it as ‘Evil’ and ‘inhuman’.
In an interview with Zodiak Online, General Secretary of the synod, Dr. Billy Gama, said the church believes in the sanctity of human life.
“Imagine you have executed a person for allegedly killing another person, two years later you find out that the executed person never committed such a crime, are you going to reverse the lost life?” wondered Dr. Gama.
A recent Supreme Court of Malawi ruling clarified that the country never abolished death penalty and that High Court judges are free to sentence murder convicts to death.
Former president Bakili Muluzi, who ruled the country from 1994 to 2004, is on record as having refused to sign for death warrant certificates.
His successors—Bingu wa Mutharika, Joyce Banda and Peter Mutharika—did also not sign a death warrant. So too the incumbent Lazarus Chakwera has not signed any.
More than 30 countries in Africa have the death penalty in their books, but just half carried out executions in recent years.
