The Death Penalty Project, an international organization that provides free legal representation for individuals facing the death penalty in the Caribbean and Africa, recently published A Guide to Sentencing in Capital Cases. The guide provides judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys with information and sample appeals to help them navigate the sentencing phase in cases where a mandatory death sentence for a specific crime was abolished, leaving the former death row inmate to be resentenced.
In the past few years, countries such as Uganda and Malawi have ruled that mandatory death penalty sentences are unconstitutional, leaving the death penalty up to the discretion of the courts. Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Zambia are also considering similar challenges to their mandatory death sentence policies. The Death Penalty Project’s guide helps court officials to better understand these new procedural issues and how aggravating and mitigating circumstance are applied in these cases.
(E. Fitzgerald & K. Starmer, A Guide to Sentencing in Capital Cases (2007). Posted December 13, 2007). Get information on the Guide here. See also Resources and International.