Ghana’s parliament outlaws death penalty for crimes

Ghana’s parliament outlaws death penalty for crimes

Ghana’s parliament has voted to outlaw the death penalty for almost all crimes, becoming the latest African country to repeal capital punishment, lawmakers said on Wednesday.

The West African country last carried out an execution in 1993, with death sentences handed out for murder and treason.

Lawmakers voted late Tuesday to remove the death penalty from the country’s statute books.

“The death sentence is too final, and as a country that respects human rights, we can’t continue to have it as part of our laws,” Francis-Xavier Sosu, an opposition MP who proposed the reform, told AFP.

Ghana’s parliament outlaws death penalty for crimes