Ghana: Abolished the death penalty for all crimes except treason, a three-decade moratorium confirmed

Ghana's parliament voted today to abolish the death penalty for all crimes except treason, confirming a three-decade moratorium on executions.

Under the new law, the sentences of 176 death row inmates, including six women, will be commuted to life imprisonment.

"Ghana upholds the constitutional and fundamental human rights of all," said Enoch Jengre of the Ghana Law Centre. "No human being or institution should have the right to take someone's life."

The death penalty is increasingly rare on the African continent. According to the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, 26 African countries have completely banned the death penalty.

The last execution in Ghana was in 1993.

Although the abolition of the death penalty has the support of human rights groups and experts, not everyone in Ghana believes it should be abolished.

"It's going to encourage some people to go into crime knowing they might just end up in jail," said social worker Raymond Kuda.

On the other hand, a criminal lawyer from Accra, Francis Gasu, who confirmed that "the population has generally accepted that the death penalty may not be useful", emphasized that the fact that judicial errors are too common and police investigations based on them speak in favor of abolition , are too deficient to sustain that sentence.