The Republic of South Sudan gained independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011

The Republic of South Sudan gained independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011, following a January referendum under the terms of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended Africa’s longest-running civil war.
Under the 2005 agreement, the South was granted regional autonomy along with guaranteed representation in a national power-sharing government.
The agreement also provided for a referendum in the south on independence in 2011, in which 99% of southern Sudanese voted to split from Sudan.
Formed from the 10 southern-most States of Sudan, South Sudan is highly diverse ethnically and linguistically. Unlike the predominantly Muslim population of Sudan, the South Sudanese follow traditional religions, while a minority are Christians.
Under the Penal Code Act, 2008 (pre-independence), the death penalty in South Sudan is provided for treason; insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism resulting in death; perjury in a capital case leading to wrongful execution; murder; attempted murder causing injury by a person sentenced to life for a previous murder; brigandage with murder; and drug dealing under aggravated circumstances.
People who in the opinion of the Court are under 18 years of age cannot be sentenced to death, neither can people who in the opinion of the Court are over the age of 70.
The death penalty is also provided by the Transitional Constitution adopted on 9 July 2011.
In January 2012, President Salva Kiir established a constitutional review commission with the mandate to develop a permanent constitution. The death penalty has already surfaced as a contentious issue in this process, as it did during the drafting of the 2005 Interim Constitution and the 2011 Transitional Constitution. The President is said to be extremely uncomfortable signing death warrants. Meanwhile, voices against the death penalty are already emerging in South Sudan. Many South Sudanese are Christian and oppose the death penalty on religious grounds. Others contend that the death penalty, introduced under British colonial rule, is incompatible with the customs and traditions of the people of South Sudan. Under the customary laws of most communities, people found guilty of murder must pay compensation to the family of the deceased, a remedy designed to restore relationships rather than to exact retribution by taking away the wrongdoer's life.
On 14 November 2012, Justice Minister John Luk Jok said South Sudan would continue to apply the death sentence to convicts of treason and murder until a new constitution is enacted. “If you look at the criminal statistics … you will notice the high level of murder cases throughout South Sudan. It means people have some disregard for human life, [that] there is no fear, there is impunity,” Jok said, sidestepping calls by local and international human rights groups to abolish, or declare an official moratorium on capital punishment. “And particularly in societies or in communities where compensation is in terms of cattle or otherwise, you find that somebody kills and then he can pay only two cows, and then he goes free as if he has done nothing. So, those arguments have some degree of validity,” he added, referring to those in favour of the death penalty. There are more than 200 convicts on the death row across the country, some of them who were possibly tried without legal aid. “At present, it is legal, it is constitutional,” Jok said. “Should there be a decision like that [to overturn the death sentence], it will mean amending the constitution and the penal law that we have,” he added. Jok promised that a new "fund basket" was being established to provide legal assistance to suspects who were unable to hire their own lawyers. Few of death row inmates benefitted from legal assistance during their trial and most were not able to appeal their sentences due to the same reasons. An estimated 95 percent of prisoners in the country, according to South Sudan's Justice Ministry, go through the criminal justice system without legal aid, while only six inmates have reportedly received government legal aid, ever since the system was established in 2006.
South Sudan’s 2008 Code of Criminal Procedure provides that execution is by hanging. South Sudanese law requires the Supreme Court to review and confirm all death sentences.
Since South Sudan became an independent State on 9 July 2011 until the end of 2012, at least ten were executed for murder. According to the U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), another 19 people were executed between 2008 and 2010.
On 28 August 2012, two prisoners were executed by hanging at a prison in the capital of the newly-independent nation of South Sudan, the United Nations (UN) reported, adding that they may have been convicted without having proper legal assistance. Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said during a news conference in Geneva that two men were hanged in the Central Prison in Juba. "One of the issues there is that they did not have proper legal assistance," Colville said, without giving other details. According to Amnesty International, three further executions were carried out in Western Bahr el Ghazal ‘s Wau Prison on 6 September, 2012.
On 26 September 2012, the Permanent Representative of South Sudan in Geneva, Riek Puok Riek, told the UN Human Rights Council that South Sudan agrees with e the logic of abolishing the death penalty. But we believe that this is a process that could be approached gradually. A government spokesperson confirmed in November that existing death penalty legislation would be reviewed as part of the ongoing constitutional review process to replace the Transitional Constitution of 2011.
On December 20, 2012, South Sudan voted in favour of the Resolution on Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.