NIGERIA: FEMALE JUDGE SPEAKS ABOUT DEATH PENALTY

Mrs Clara Ogunbiyi is a female judge of the Court of Appeal, Lagos division in Nigeria. In an interview, she revealed that the most difficult case she ever handled was of Sunday Effiong, an ex-service man who was involved in a criminal matter that she prosecuted. "He was sentenced to death for murder. I felt it when the judgement was being read. I was convinced he committed the offence; the matter went on to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court and the judgement was affirmed. He was executed at the end of the day but I felt it, from the human point of view. The other case was one related to two brothers. I also tried that case; they were convicted and I sentenced them to death. I felt this case also because both of them were brothers from the same parents and both of them were convicted for murder." She also said that the death penalty has not served as a deterrent measure. "One would have expected quite a number of the crimes in the society to have subsided as a result of death sentence, but you cannot see that really happening. Rather, it is on the increase. I would suggest the better alternative would be life imprisonment."