CommuTalk Reporter
GWERU residents have called for the abolition of the death penalty and said offenders must be given a second chance.
Speaking during a public hearing held in Mkoba high-density suburb to gather views on the Death Penalty Abolition Bill by the Joint Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and thematic on human rights, most residents who contributed said the country should expunge the punishment from the Constitution.
Carol Chipuriro said the death penalty must be abolished as some offenders commit crimes as a result of mental health illness.
“These people must be put in jail so that they are put on medication and then go under rehabilitation,” she said.
Sikululiwe Tshuma said the death penalty abolition bill should not be passed into law noting that it affects family members of those executed.
“The death penalty traumatizes the family of the convicted especially parents and also triggers bitterness in the family,” she said.
Hazel Denhere said; “The reason why there are prisons in this country is that criminals go there to be corrected of their mistakes and that is why it is called a correctional service so people should instead get a second chance to life and not be given the death penalty.”
Another resident said that there is no scientific evidence that the death penalty will stop occurrence of murder cases.
Those against the abolition of the death penalty said it will result in people committing crimes as punishment will not be deterrent.
“If a person commits murder they must be sentenced to death as would have cut short another person’s life,” one resident said.
Masvingo-Zaka senator Robson Mavhenyengwa who led the parliamentary committee said they were going around the country gathering the public’s view on the bill.
Cabinet agreed to abolish the death penalty for murder offences in February this year.
Zimbabwe had gone for almost two decades without any execution as the vacancy for hangman has not found any takers.
The Constitution maintains the death sentence but excludes women, men under the age of 21, and men over the age of 70 from being sent to the gallows.
