Zambian lawyer Kelvin Hang'andu was seeking to abolish...

Zambian lawyer Kelvin Hang'andu was seeking to abolish the death penalty in Zambia.
Hang'andu was representing two men on death row at the country's maximum prison in Kabwe. They were sentenced in 2000, and since then the Supreme Court had twice rejected his petition.
The court reserved its judgment on the third appeal in April, and advised the lawyer to make a submission to the Constitution Review Commission.
Since 1964, when Zambia became independent, 53 people had reportedly been executed by hanging.
Hang'andu clients, Benjamin Banda and Cephas Kufa Miti, had been sentenced to death after being found guilty of aggravated robbery, but Miti had since died in custody. The Supreme Court dismissed the appeals and upheld their convictions, which allowed for capital punishment.
The lawyer had argued that his clients' death sentences were contrary to the Zambian constitution on the grounds that hanging is inhuman and degrading. Article 15 of the constitution states that "a person shall not be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading punishment, or other like punishment".
"The sentences of death imposed on the petitioners violates the treaties signed by the Zambian government, and other international guidelines requiring abolition of capital punishment in all United Nations member states," he said.
The petition of Hang'andu remaining client, Banda, had been boosted by President Levy Mwanawasa's refusal to sign a death penalty as long as he remained in office.
Human rights groups and a section of the church have called on Mwanawasa to also do away with the death penalty, but he has instead urged them to make submissions to the Constitution Review Commission.
"Poor policing and forced confessions, which poor people are subjected, to as well as poor legal representation ... does lead to wrongful conviction and shedding of innocent people's blood," said Chishimba Milongo, a spokesperson for the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace. "In the absence of statistics, but with some vivid examples of rich people getting away with crime in Zambia, we can assume that poor people do get convicted, even when innocent."
Executive director of the Inter-Africa Network for Human Rights, Ng'ande Mwanajiti, pointed out that the death penalty had failed to reduce crime in most jurisdictions.