SOUTH AFRICA. COURT SLAMS STATE'S DEATH-ROW DELAYS

the Human Rights Commission of South Africa commended the May 25 Constitutional Court judgment that ordered the government to report to the court by August 15 on what it had done to set aside the death sentences of the 62 people still on death row.
Commissioner Karthy Govender welcomed the court's judgment and said it was time finality was reached on the issue of the death penalty.
"It has been more than 10 years since the Constitutional Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional. The court was critical that five years after a law was passed for the president to impose fresh sentences, this has not been done," Govender said.
In 1995, the Constitutional Court handed down its first judgment, abolishing the death penalty as a form of punishment. In 1998 the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1997 provided a procedure to be followed to set aside death sentences and substitute them with another appropriate sentence. This process was not questioned by the court, but the time it was taking was. It was an "unusual step" to require government to report back to the court by August, Govender said. The Democratic Alliance (DA) said assurances given by the justice department to Parliament in 1997, that death-row prisoners would be re-sentenced speedily, had been exposed for a sham. "Perhaps the Constitutional Court's demands will command greater respect," DA justice spokeswoman Sheila Camerer said.