In Gambia, the death penalty was abolished in 1993, but re-established in August 1995 by the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council.

In Gambia, the death penalty was abolished in 1993, but re-established in August 1995 by the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council. The AFPRC had seized power in 1994 through a military coup overthrowing the country’s elected government.
The country returned to constitutional rule in 1996 when coup leader Yahya Jammeh ran as a civilian and won presidential elections.
The new Constitution adopted in 1996 retains the death penalty. Article 18 (1) of the constitution of the Gambia provides for the protection of the right to life in the following terms: "No person shall be deprived of his or her life intentionally except in the execution of a sentence of death imposed by a court of competence jurisdiction in respect of a criminal offence for which the penalty is death under the laws of The Gambia as they have effect in accordance with subsection (2) and of which he or she has been lawfully convicted." Article 18 (2) states: "As from the coming into force of this constitution, no court in The Gambia shall be competent to impose a sentence of death for any offence unless the sentence is prescribed by law and the offence involves violence, or the administration of any toxic substance, resulting in the death of another person."
Condemned prisoners can appeal to the Court of Appeal and then to the Supreme Court. The condemned can, as a last resort, ask the President to grant a pardon.
There has only been one execution since Gambia’s independence from the UK in 1965. Mustapha Danso, convicted of the murder of a deputy commander in chief in December 1980, was executed on September 30, 1981.
On December 18, 2008 Gambia abstained on the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.