Magister Legum - LLM / There has been an ongoing debate on the abolishment of the death penalty in Zimbabwe. The public, non-governmental organisations and human rights activists need clarity as to the effectiveness, justification and purpose, if any, of the retention of the death sentence in Zimbabwe. Therefore, this paper shall give an insight on whether or not the decision to retain the death penalty in Zimbabwe is line with the country’s international and regional mandate of protecting and promoting human rights.

L'abolition de la peine de mort est aujourd'hui devenue une des valeurs fondamentales de la civilisation européenne. Nos recherches se feront sous l'axe d'une étude comparée entre les six pays fondateurs de l'actuelle Union Européenne. L'histoire et la culture communes à ces six États ont abouti à ce qu'aujourd'hui tout européen est le citoyen, l'habitant d'une entité quasi indéfinissable, d'un territoire multiple en recherche d'identité, mais abolitionniste. Comment concrètement sont-ils parvenus à imposer une telle clause morale, du sein de leurs propres institutions jusqu'au cœur législatif de l'Union, c'est à dire jusqu'au point où l'abolition devienne une condition sine qua non d'entrée dans l’Union Européenne ? Par l'unicité et le croisement infléchi par l'Europe de quelles histoires nationales est-on parvenu aujourd'hui à cet entendement effectif ? Quels furent les artisans de cette pensée : les hommes, les réseaux, les mouvements politiques ou idéologiques ? Et pour quelle raison s'impliquèrent-ils dans une telle cause ? Leur engagement européiste fut-il indissociable de l'abolitionnisme, et réciproquement ? L'histoire de la peine de mort et de son abolition s'inscrit dans l'histoire et la philosophie du droit, l'histoire des mentalités, les sciences politiques et ce que l'on pourrait nommer l'histoire civique. Cette dernière correspond aux fondamentaux idéologiques d'une société de droit, elle est la marque d'une appartenance à une même collectivité au service d'une même nation ou des mêmes idéaux. L'abolition de la sanction capitale est l'œuvre d'hommes particuliers, mais appartenant tous à un contexte national, qu'il soit économique, social, intellectuel ou juridique. Notre étude ne peut avoir de sens qu'à l'aune de l'ensemble de ces nombreux facteurs. / The abolition of the death penalty has now become one of the fundamental values of European civilization. Our research will be in the axis of a comparative study between the six founding countries of the current EU. The history and culture common to these six states led to what today is all European citizens, the living entity almost indefinable territory in search of multiple identity, but abolitionist. How are they actually able to impose such a clause morality, within their own institutions to the heart of the legislative union, ie to the point where abolition becomes a sine qua non of entry into the EU? By the uniqueness and cross deflected by the European national histories is what we today reached this understanding effective? What were the architects of this thought: men, networks, political or ideological movements? And why they became involved in such a cause? Their commitment Europeanist he was inseparable from abolitionism, and vice versa? The history of the death penalty and its abolition is part of the history and philosophy of law, history of mentalities, political science and what might be called the civic history. The latter corresponds to the fundamental ideological company law, it is the mark of belonging to the same community in the service of the same nation or ideals. The abolition of capital punishment is the work of particular men, but all belonging to a national context, whether economic, social, cultural or legal. Our study can be meaningful only in terms of all of these many factors.

Contemporary American capital punishment contains many processual elements, such as the prisoner's last meal and the cleansing of his body immediately before death, that serve no concrete, practical purpose but share a nature with ritual practices. In this project, I utilize a hermeneutic phenomenological lens to identify and list these ritual elements. I also use concepts drawn from the structural functionalist tradition to both analyze the specific purposes the elements serve within individual parts of the death penalty and to discuss the overarching result of the inclusion of these elements within the process as a whole. Ultimately, I find that the ritual elements present in the capital punishment process serve a social control purpose, insulating and reinforcing the death penalty as a whole. Ritual works to do this by controlling the behavior and image of the prisoner and emotionally soothing both participants of the process and the public at large.

Doctor Educationis / It is rare in law and in other disciplines for a word or a phrase to appear to mean what it does not. This is, however, true when it comes to life imprisonment or life sentence. I Unlike sentences like the death penalty, there have been instances where even those who are expected to know the meaning of the sentence of life imprisonment have misunderstood it.2 This misunderstanding is compounded by the fact that even dictionaries that have always helped us to understand the meaning of the words are of little help when it comes to the definition of life imprisonment. The Oxford Advanced Leamer's Dictionary, for example, defines life sentence to mean 'the punishment by which [some body] spends the rest of their life in prison." It goes ahead to define a 'lifer' as 'a person who has been sent to The ambiguity of life imprisonment could partly explain why the campaign prison for their whole life." to abolish the death penalty and substitute it with life imprisonment has option to choose between the death penalty and life-imprisonment,

"The study, considering international law and comparable case law on the subject in Africa, argues that Uganda does not comply with international standards in the use of the death penalty for countries that retain it. It h penalty in Uganda can be challenged. It is argued that it may not be easy to challenge the death penalty in Uganda as unconstitutional, but it can certainly be confronted based on the failure to comply with procedural safeguards for those on death row at the domestic, regional and international level. The death penalty is currently a subject of debate in Uganda by both the public and the Constitutional Court. The fact that Uganda retains the death penalty and that the recent executions were caried out in the most horrendous manner is worrying. There is concern that this might be an emerging trend, which warrants an analysis of the legality of the punishment and its operation in Uganda. Furthermore, the death penalty is still carried out in most parts of Africe, yet there is not much written on the subject. Most of the writings on the subject of the death penalty focus on the USA. This study will contribute to the sparse research on the sujbect in Africa. The value of this research is that it indicates ways that can be used to confront the death penalty that may work not only in Uganda, but also in ohter parts of Africa." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2003. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

The death penalty has had many regulations placed since its first use in America to make the process more equitable, but people are still being wrongfully sentenced to die. Using a data set of 139 exonerations over a period from 1980 to 2021, the current study examined some prominent factors in wrongful death penalty convictions and how these factors have changed or endured over time. The major findings revealed that racial disparity still exists in the legal process, but it is declining. Exonerees are more likely to have three or more contributing factors (perjury or false accusation, official misconduct, false or misleading forensic evidence, et cetera) in their wrongful death penalty convictions. Official misconduct and perjury or false accusation are by far the most common reasons for a wrongful conviction. The current study also found that often, DNA is not available to test or is simply not being tested, and there is a downward trend overall in the amount of DNA testing being done. Recommendations for further improvements are discussed.

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