Partial victory in prisoners' bid to end death penalty

Uganda's constitutional court on Friday rejected an appeal by hundreds of death row prisoners to outlaw capital punishment, but ruled in favour of putting an end to laws prescribing death as a mandatory sentence for certain crimes. "The death penalty is not unconstitutional because it is given by the laws as punishment after due process," Galdino Okello, who headed the team of constitutional court judges, said. However, the judges said that while parliament should have the authority to define the maximum sentence for a crime, the courts should decide whether or not to apply the maximum penalty. "Courts are compelled to pass the death sentence because the law orders them to do so, [but] not all the offences can be the same," Okello said. In January, the country's second highest court began hearing the unprecedented legal challenge to capital punishment by the country's 417 death row inmates. The prisoners contended that the death penalty - carried out by hanging - amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, which is prohibited by the Ugandan constitution. Human rights activists who sponsored the petition said the ruling was a big step forward. "We have made significant achievements on the mandatory death sentence because it has been outlawed by the court. Death row prisoners can now seek redress in court to reconsider their case, which was not possible before," Livingstone Ssewanyana, an official of the Uganda Human Rights Initiative, said. According to prison records, at least 377 people, including one woman, have been legally executed in Uganda since 1938. President Yoweri Museveni's government has hanged 51 people, but none since 1999, when it executed 28 prisoners in one day.