On January 15, Gwara Brown Motswetla, 28, and Tlhabologang...

On January 15, Gwara Brown Motswetla, 28, and Tlhabologang Phetolo Maauwe, 30, two men condemned to death in 1995, won an eleventh hour stay of execution because Justice Reynolds in an interim ruling said that the 4-year delay in carrying out the sentences was unconstitutional, execution by hanging constituted cruel punishment, and all laws prescribing executions by hanging were invalid. The men were sentenced to death by the High Court in Francistown in 1995 after being found guilty of killing a man whose cow they had allegedly stolen. It was also alleged they burnt his body, but no body, only charred bones were found, the defense said. The conviction was largely on circumstantial evidence. The Court of Appeal later upheld the sentence and President Festus Mogae refused to commute it. This interim ruling went further into the case for abolition of the death penalty in Botswana.