Abolition of Death Penalty in Nigeria: Juristic Issues and Solutions (Published)
Death penalty or capital punishment which simply means the imposition and execution of death sentence on a convicted person under prescribed State Law is no doubt a controversial subject matter. This controversy has led to the emergence of those who support its retention in the country’s statute books and those who want it abolished. The two groups have their compelling reasons. We looked at the laws both statutory and case as well as opinion of text writers and came to the conclusion that there are more reasons for its continuous existence. We however proposed some recommendations aimed at reducing cases where capital punishment must give way to life imprisonment even under the existing legislations in Nigeria.
Keywords: Death Penalty, abolitionists, capital punishment, retentionists, solutions
Most Serious Crimes” Vs “Especially Serious Circumstances” The Economic Crimes under Iccpr and Death Penalty in China (Published)
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is of vital important as a cumulative world’s perception regarding human rights standards. China is on the verge of abolishing death penalty for economic crimes. The accession of ‘life imprisonment without possibility of parole and commutation(LWOP)’ came as a replacement but the pre-requisite invoking this article is not clearly mentioned in the article 383 of Chinese criminal law 1997. The concept of ‘extremely serious circumstance’ in article 383 repugnant to the concept of ‘most serious crime’ in article 6 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This article examines the concept on the standards and jurisprudence of ICCPR and comment on the resultant punishment to make it appropriate to the international standards. Further proposed a modified model of current LWOP for complete abolition of death penalty for economic crimes of corruption and bribery.
Keywords: Death Penalty, Economic Crimes, Extremely Serious Crime, ICCPR, Most Serious Crime