BOTSWANA: BOKO FIGHTS DEATH PENALTY

a Gaborone human rights lawyer, Duma Boko, is embarking on a crusade to fight against the death penalty in Botswana. Duma is representing Brandon Sampson, a Motswana recently sentenced to death together with his South African counterpart, Michael Molefhe after they killed two Zimbabwean men..
Although he is filing an appeal for his client, he will wage the struggle against the death penalty separately. He is an ardent opponent of capital punishment. He described the death penalty as a terribly unpleasant situation for any one involved in the case. "The pronouncement of the death sentence devalues our humanity," argues Boko. "The words 'you shall hang by the neck until you die', speak more about the person uttering them than the person they are directed at. It is that person whose values are under the spotlight. It is an indictment against the society to retain a heinous penalty." Boko argued that the question as to whether someone would hang or not, depends on who the judge presiding over the case is. "It is arbitrarily and unevenly applied depending on who the judge is. That is why I am saying the death penalty speaks about the judge."