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

In The Gambia, the death penalty was abolished in 1993, but re-established in August 1995 by the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council that 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."
On 4 April 2011, Gambia abolished the death penalty for drug-related offences, which had been extended only in 2010, and replaced it with life imprisonment. Amendments were also made to the Criminal Code Act and the Trafficking in Persons Act 2007, to make them compatible with the 1996 Constitution.
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.
On 23 August 2012, after 31 years of de facto moratorium, The Gambia executed by firing squad nine death row prisoners. Previously, there was only one official execution since Gambia’s independence from the UK in 1965. When Mustapha Danso, convicted of the murder of a deputy commander in chief in December 1980, was executed on 30 September 1981. However, it seems that executions in Gambia have continued unofficially with the most recent before August 2012 taking place in 2007.
On December 18, 2008 and December 21st, 2010, Gambia abstained on the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.