the State of Uganda insisted that the death penalty was constitutional and should be upheld.

the State of Uganda insisted that the death penalty was constitutional and should be upheld. 
"The death penalty is the only price for some one who has taken another person's life because life is the most valuable thing. Do not touch it if you want to live," said State Attorney, Mr Benjamin Wamambe, while opposing a plea by over 417 condemned prisoners.
He said the death penalty is the highest punishment that could be given to capital offenders. The condemned prisoners were inmates of the Luzira Upper Prison and the Jinja-based Kirinya Prison. They wanted the Constitutional Court to scrap the death sentence, calling it a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
Wamambe said, "it is hypocritical for the petitioners to argue that every human being has a right to life, when they ignored pleas for mercy by their victims and killed them in cold blood."
He said the death penalty was included in Uganda's laws due to the country's bad history, which was characterised by extra-judicial killing, unlawful detention and rampant cases of torture.
"We (the State) cannot do better than the Constitutional Review Commission which recommended in its report (released recently) that Uganda should not be pressurised to adopt positions which do not suit its current norms," Wamambe said. The condemned prisoners were challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty.