Denis Ocwich - Africa News

Uganda: Is the State Allowed to Kill? 

Father Agostoni criticises the death sentence

Title of book: May the State Kill?

Author: Fr. Tarcisio Agostoni

 Publisher: Pauline's Publications Africa

 Year of Publication: 2002

Are you one of those keenly interested in following the global campaign against execution of criminals by the state? Then, the revised edition of May the State Kill is a book you must read and stock in your library.

 Though written from the vantage point of Uganda, the 144-page piece is laced with examples and quotes from across the globe in support of abolition of the death penalty.

 It is an indepth comparative study born out of concerted international research. The team of researchers includes, a coalition of institutions engaged in public awareness to reach the abolition of the death sentence in Uganda.

 It comprised the Uganda Human Rights Commission, Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, Human Rights Network, Uganda Joint Christian Council, Prison Fellowship and Amnesty International.

 As a Christian (Verona Father), the author, Fr. Tarcisio Agostoni goes beyond the legal, philosophical and sociological perspectives. He blends his work with a strong religious foundation for the necessity to abolish the death penalty.

 Having served for 10 years as a pastor at the condemned section of Luzira Upper Prison, Fr. Agostoni of Comboni Missionaries, argues fervently for abolition of the death penalty.

 He sees nothing good at all in hanging human beings and calls it a violation of God-given inherent right to life.

 He goes on to commend the European Union countries and Canada for abolishing the death penalty. But he raps the United States of America for continuing to send several people, including juvenile offenders and the mentally handicapped, to the gallows.

 He argues that a good number of those killed are innocent- only convicted because of erroneous judicial procedures, including mistakes by judges.

 Besides, Agostoni says that contrary to arguments that death sentences help to reduce crime rates by serving as deterrent measures, there has never been any proof. Instead, he says, countries that have abolished it have lower rates of homicide, compared with those still practising it.

 The lengthy period (sometimes 6 years) that prisoners spend on death row, he argues, is dehumanising.

 The book carries passionate testimonies from prisoners who have been waiting for their death at Luzira Upper Prison. The inmates narrate that being sentenced to death is the most horrifying ordeal in human life.

 The convicts are worn out by stress, anxiety and fear, and some of them "develop constant diarrhoea or non-effective bowl control and eventually hypertension."

 He quotes the Bible and Constitution and International Human Rights Instruments.

 Agostoni who has worked with the Catholic church of Uganda for 40 years,emphasises the Biblical "thou shalt not kill".