Death Penalty: Trials and Tribulations

Following a landmark ruling by Uganda’s Supreme Court in 2009, which found mandatory death sentences to be unconstitutional and declared that serving at least three years on death row amounted to cruel and inhuman punishment, a number of death row prisoners had their sentences to life or long-term sentences. However, many remain, with an estimated 505 prisoners on death row, including 35 women at the end of 2011.

In Uganda, 28 crimes can attract the death penalty – including robbery, smuggling, acts of treason and terrorism, and non-lethal military sentences, and death sentences continue to be handed out after judicial proceedings which fail to meet international standards for a fair trial.

This film produced by PRI’s Ugandan partner the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative provides a moving insight into the situation of prisoners on death row and others serving life sentences in the country.

This film was produced under PRI’s European Union funded project ‘Progressive Abolition of the Death Penalty and Alternatives that Respect International Human Rights Standards’