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Friday 26 October 2018

Slow Death

The BBC was running a story about how a centenarian, who is on death row in Nigeria with his forty one year old son, was being considered for a pardon from death row and release, simply because of his age.

Death Row Nigeria .... Crowded Place With Long Wait.
Death Row Nigeria .... Crowded Place With Long Wait.

He has been in prison for murder and conspiracy to murder over a land dispute for 18 years, with his youngest son. But they have been on death row together for the last four years (such is the speed of Nigerian justice).

Now aside from the fact that they plead that they were actually innocent (don't they all?), especially as the sheer length of time that has passed, means that the plaintiffs family have since moved and can't be found anymore. Or the fact that the son hopes to get released as well, as his fathers carer, the truth is, that apart from the fact that a man convicted of murder has got old, there is little merit to their plea for release. Even commuting the sentence to life, wouldn't change the fact that the old man will die soon, one way or another.

Death Is The Point Of Death Row
Death Is The Point Of Death Row ...

After all, he is on death row, and therefore 'death' is the whole point of being there. So whether it be by execution, or by old age and natural causes, by one means or another the person on death row is sent there to die. The other main point of the story was that there are over 2,000 people on death row in Nigeria, and many of them spend years waiting to be executed. But usually that's because their lawyers lodge every conceivable appeal possible to put off execution day.

Resisting Death Is Always Futile In The End
We Usually Resist Death Until Our Dying Breaths - But Resistance Is Futile

Also, in what way is that any different from the US? As of October 6, 2018, there were 2,705 death row inmates in the United States, and the average time spent on death row was  178 months (roughly 15 years), between sentencing and execution in 2010. With nearly a quarter of the inmates of death row in the U.S. dying of natural causes before ever being executed.

So Nigerian (pop 190.9million 2017), figures compare favourably with the USA (pop 325.7 million 2017) .... But think on this. If the waiting time was far less (say 2 years including an unsuccessful appeal), and therefore there were not thousands waiting for execution at any one time, would the liberals be any happier?

As the situation stands in both countries, you have at least a 25 per cent chance of dying in your bed in the USA and Nigeria, while on death row ....... perhaps the liberals would prefer the Chinese legal efficiency which gets you executed within days or weeks of the sentence (and always includes an unsuccessful appeal process).

China executed 12,000 people in 2002, 6,500 people in 2007, and roughly 2,400 in 2013 and 2014 .... still more than the USA and Nigerian systems actually manage in a decade. It should also be noted that reportedly a very large number of Nigerians are on death rows across the globe, with for example 12 awaiting execution in Indonesia alone .... most would wish for the legal process to take as long as it does back in Nigeria

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