Edmond Mwenelupembe, 22, was sentenced to death after...

Edmond Mwenelupembe, 22, was sentenced to death after two-thirds of a 12-member jury found guilty of murder.
Mwenelupembe looked unmoved as presiding judge Dunstain Mwaungulu sent him to the gallows, but in a brief interview with the Daily Times minutes after the verdict, Mwenelupembe said that the death sentence was hard to take.
"It scares me and I feel bad," he said looking frightened and in near tears in the presence of prison guards.
Defence lawyer Trouble Kalua, a Legal Aid Advocate, tried to mitigate the punishment saying that the convict was a first offender, had been in custody since 1996 and had pleaded guilty.
However, Mwaungulu observed that the mandatory sentence for murder is death.Mwenelupembe was convicted for knifing James Kaliya in the neck on May 1, 1996, in Chilomoni after a drinking spree.
Malawi President Bakili Muluzi has never authorised executions since he assumed the reins of power in 1994 in spite of the many that have since been condemned to death row.