the Respondent State violated Article 5 of the Charter for prescribing the
death sentence by hanging.
87. The Court confirms, specifically with regard to the Applicant’s contention in
respect of the effects of her spending a long time on death row, that the
period of waiting for an execution can cause stress on persons sentenced
to death particularly when the wait is long. The Court emphasises that
detention on death row is inherently inhuman and encroaches upon human
dignity. This Court considers that the stress associated with detention on
the death row stems from the natural fear of death that a condemned
prisoner has to live with.29 However, given that a person sentenced to death
is still entitled to exhaust all judicial processes, a balance must be struck
between permitting one to access the available judicial remedies while not
keeping individuals whose sentences have been confirmed by the highest
court on death row indefinitely.30 In such a case, states such as the
Respondent are encouraged to determine appropriate sentences for
persons originally sentenced to death which remove the constant possibility
of the enforcement of the death penalty that persons on death row have to
endure.
88. The Court recalls that in the instant case, the Applicant was found guilty and
sentenced to death on 19 September 2011. The final judicial
pronouncement, in relation to her case, was the decision of the Court of
Appeal dismissing her application for review on 19 March 2015. To date,
therefore, the Applicant has spent at least seven (7) years on death row,
after the conclusion of all judicial proceedings in her case.
89. The Court considers that such detention and the length of time thereof have
inevitably caused the Applicant to endure a level of suffering that infringes
upon her dignity. The Court, therefore, finds that the Respondent State
29
Attorney General v. Susan Kigula and 417 others, Constitutional Appeal No. 03 of 2006, (Supreme
Court of Uganda) and Attorney General of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas v. Farrington and Ministry
of Public Safety and Immigration and others [1997] AC 413 421-425.
30 Attorney General v. Kigula (as above).
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