Capital punishment in Seychelles

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Capital punishment has been abolished in Seychelles. The country permanently abolished the death penalty by a Constitutional amendment in June 1993.

Contents

History

The last execution by the authorities in Seychelles took place while the nation was still under British rule. The exact date of that execution, the method used in carrying out the execution, and the person executed, are unknown. [1] In 1966, the country abolished the death penalty for murder and other civilian crimes, still while the country was under British colonial rule. Upon gaining independence from Britain in 1976, Seychelles confirmed their choice to do away with the death penalty. At the time, however, they retained the death penalty only for treason. [2]

In July 1982, four mercenaries in a group of seven were sentenced to death in Seychelles for attempting to overthrow the country's government. The four men — Aubrey Brooks, a 38-year-old Zimbabwean; Jeremiah Puren, a 57-year-old South African; Roger England, a 26-year-old holding dual nationality in the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe; and Bernard Carey, a 38-year-old British national — all pleaded guilty to treason, the only crime punishable by death in Seychelles at the time. Their death sentences were passed in the nation's capital and largest city, Victoria. [3] Another fifth man among the group, South African intelligence agent Martin Dolinchek, also pleaded guilty, but he received a 20-year prison sentence due to the court determining that he displayed remorse for his involvement in the attempted coup. A sixth, Robert Sims, a native of South Africa, only faced a maximum of 20 years in jail on charges of illegally importing arms into Seychelles as a part of the attempt. A seventh, a woman named Susan Ingles, had her charges dropped and was subsequently deported to South Africa. The mercenaries were a part of a group of 53 that was led by Mad Mike Hoare, a British-South African mercenary. [3]

Brooks, Puren, England, and Carey were never executed, and Seychelles had no gallows at the time that they sentenced the mercenaries to death; all four were released from prison in 1983. [4] Aubrey Brooks later wrote an autobiographical account of his experiences in which he mentions spending two years in prison for his involvement in the attempted coup; he also thanks the President of Seychelles, Albert Rene, for playing a considerable role in saving his life. [5]

Press reports indicated that at the time of abolition, the method utilized in Seychelles was hanging. [3] Hanging tended to be the standard method of execution among nations in the British Empire. [6]

Abolition

Prior to abolishing the death penalty, Seychellois lawmakers hesitated when it came to the question of abolishing the death penalty for certain serious non-murder crimes such as treason, other political crimes, or drug trafficking. This was a similar concern that other African countries that are now abolitionist dealt with as well, including São Tomé and Principe, Ivory Coast, and Mauritius. The debates within these countries all resulted in them abolishing the death penalty for all crimes, including those political and drug-related crimes. All of the countries that had these debates were countries that had spent a considerable amount of time not carrying out any executions prior to the abolition of the death penalty. [7]

On 18 June 1993, the Constitution of the Republic of Seychelles was ratified. Article 15, Section 2 explicitly abolished the death penalty for all crimes, including both civilian and wartime crimes. [1] Seychelles's abolition of the death penalty is also reflected in Section 194 of the country's penal code. [8]

Modern criminal justice measures

Seychelles is a signatory to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations; the Second Optional Protocol commits signatories to permanently prohibiting the death penalty within their borders. [7]

Criminals who commit serious crimes in Seychelles are now subjected to life imprisonment as the maximum sentence possible under Seychellois law. [8]

Related Research Articles

Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned practice of killing a person as a punishment for a crime, usually following an authorised, rule-governed process to conclude that the person is responsible for violating norms that warrant said punishment. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in such a manner is known as a death sentence, and the act of carrying out the sentence is known as an execution. A prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is condemned and is commonly referred to as being "on death row". Etymologically, the term capital refers to execution by beheading, but executions are carried out by many methods, including hanging, shooting, lethal injection, stoning, electrocution, and gassing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hanging</span> Death by suspension around the neck

Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature. Hanging has been a common method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and is the primary execution method in numerous countries and regions. The first known account of execution by hanging is in Homer's Odyssey. Hanging is also a method of suicide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in the United Kingdom</span> History of the death penalty in the UK

Capital punishment in the United Kingdom predates the formation of the UK, having been used within the British Isles from ancient times until the second half of the 20th century. The last executions in the United Kingdom were by hanging, and took place in 1964; capital punishment for murder was suspended in 1965 and finally abolished in 1969. Although unused, the death penalty remained a legally defined punishment for certain offences such as treason until it was completely abolished in 1998; the last execution for treason took place in 1946. In 2004, Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights became binding on the United Kingdom; it prohibits the restoration of the death penalty as long as the UK is a party to the convention.

Capital punishment in Canada dates back to Canada's earliest history, including its period as a French colony and, after 1763, its time as a British colony. From 1867 to the elimination of the death penalty for murder on July 26, 1976, 1,481 people had been sentenced to death, and 710 had been executed. Of those executed, 697 were men and 13 women. The only method used in Canada for capital punishment of civilians after the end of the French regime was hanging. The last execution in Canada was the double hanging of Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin on December 11, 1962, at Toronto's Don Jail. The National Defence Act prescribed the death penalty for certain military offences until 1999, although no military executions had been carried out since 1946.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in New Zealand</span> Overview of the topic

Capital punishment – the process of sentencing convicted offenders to death for the most serious crimes and carrying out that sentence, as ordered by a legal system – first appeared in New Zealand in a codified form when New Zealand became a British colony in 1840. It was first carried out with a public hanging in Victoria Street, Auckland in 1842, while the last execution occurred in 1957 at Mount Eden Prison, also in Auckland. In total, 85 people have been lawfully executed in New Zealand.

Capital punishment was abolished in Virginia on March 24, 2021, when Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill into law. The law took effect on July 1, 2021. Virginia is the 23rd state to abolish the death penalty, and the first southern state in United States history to do so.

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Sri Lanka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in Russia</span>

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Russia, but is not used due to a moratorium and no death sentences or executions have been carried out since 2 August 1996. Russia has had an implicit moratorium in place since one was established by President Boris Yeltsin in 1996, and explicitly established by the Constitutional Court of Russia in 1999 and reaffirmed in 2009.

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Malaysian law.

Capital punishment in Georgia was completely abolished on 1 May 2000 when the country signed Protocol 6 to the ECHR. Later Georgia also adopted the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR. Capital punishment was replaced with life imprisonment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in Ireland</span> Overview of the capital punishment in Ireland

Capital punishment in the Republic of Ireland was abolished in statute law in 1990, having been abolished in 1964 for most offences including ordinary murder. The last person to be executed by the British state on the island of Ireland was Robert McGladdery, who was hanged on 20 December 1961 in Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The last person to be executed by the state in the Republic of Ireland was Michael Manning, hanged for murder on 20 April 1954. All subsequent death sentences in the Republic of Ireland, the last handed down in 1985, were commuted by the President, on the advice of the Government, to terms of imprisonment of up to 40 years. The Twenty-first Amendment to the constitution, passed by referendum in 2001, prohibits the reintroduction of the death penalty, even during a state of emergency or war. Capital punishment is also forbidden by several human rights treaties to which the state is a party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1981 Seychelles coup attempt</span> A failed coup attempt by South Africa

The 1981 Seychelles coup d'état attempt, sometimes referred to as the Seychelles affair or Operation Angela, was a failed South African–orchestrated coup to overthrow the government of Prime Minister France-Albert René in Seychelles and restore the previous president, James Mancham, to power.

Capital punishment remains a legal penalty for multiple crimes in the Gambia. However, the country has taken recent steps towards abolishing the death penalty.

Capital punishment in Malawi is a legal punishment for certain crimes. The country abolished the death penalty following a Malawian Supreme Court ruling in 2021, but it was soon reinstated. However, the country is currently under a death penalty moratorium, which has been in place since the latest execution in 1992.

Capital punishment has been abolished in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone abolished capital punishment in July 2021 following a decision by the nation's Parliament.

Capital punishment is no longer a legal punishment in Rwanda. The death penalty was abolished in the country in 2007.

Capital punishment in Burkina Faso has been abolished. In late May 2018, the National Assembly of Burkina Faso adopted a new penal code that omitted the death penalty as a sentencing option, thereby abolishing the death penalty for all crimes.

Capital punishment is not a legal penalty in Samoa. The death penalty was used in the colonial era, but the practice had ceased by the time of independence in 1962, with death sentences being commuted to life imprisonment, and it was formally abolished in 2004. The last execution was carried out in 1952.

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Uganda. The death penalty was likely last carried out in 1999, although some sources say the last execution in Uganda took place in 2005. Regardless, Uganda is interchangeably considered a retentionist state with regard to capital punishment, due to absence of "an established practice or policy against carrying out executions," as well as a de facto abolitionist state due to the lack of any executions for over one decade.

Capital punishment in Gabon was officially abolished for all crimes in 2010. Gabon's last execution took place in 1985. Prior to abolition, Gabon was classified as de facto abolitionist, or "abolitionist in practice," due to the length of time since their last execution.

References

  1. 1 2 Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (29 March 2001). "Capital Punishment and the Implementation of the Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty" (PDF). United Nations Economic and Social Council: 43. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  2. ↑ "The Death Penalty in Wartime: Arguments for Abolition" (PDF). Amnesty International. January 1994. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 "Four Mercenaries Sentenced to Gallows". UPI (United Press International). 6 July 1982. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
  4. ↑ War in Peace: The Marshall Cavendish Illustrated Encyclopedia of Postwar Conflict. Marshall Cavendish. 1 January 1985. pp. 780–781. ISBN   978-0863072932.
  5. ↑ Brooks, Aubrey (26 December 2012). Death Row in Paradise: The Untold Story of the Mercenary Invasion of the Seychelles, 1981-83. Helion & Company. ISBN   9781909982048 . Retrieved 4 June 2021.
  6. ↑ "Hanging: Definition, History, Death Penalty, & Lynching". Britannica. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
  7. 1 2 Karimunda, Muyoboke (29 September 2011). The Death Penalty in Africa. NUI Galway (Thesis). p. 220. hdl:10379/2228 . Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  8. 1 2 Supreme Court of Seychelles (14 December 2007). "R v. Pothin". SeyLII. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
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