Lagos retains death penalty to check violent crimes

CONTRARY to the expectations of several campaigns for the abolition of death penalty in the Lagos justice system, the state government Wednesday re-endorsed capital punishment to serve as deterrence against violent crimes, such as murder and armed robbery.

   The endorsement was informed by an expert survey on the issue, where a majority of opinions from the public felt that death penalty is effective in deterrence and retribution for heinous crimes.

   State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, said it was in the light of the perceptions and expert survey that the State Executive Council adopted its retention in the stat’s criminal law.

   According to Ipaye, following several abolition campaigns and international advocacy addressed to the state government, in particular as the pacesetter in justice sector reforms, the State Executive Council considered the proposition to abolish or retain death penalty in the Lagos State Criminal Law.

   In taking its decision, it commissioned an empirical research that surveyed the perception of Lagos residents and elicited their opinions on the debate, including whether they believed that death penalty was currently deterring violent crime.

   The objective and outcome of the survey are to inform the development of a state policy on capital punishment based on empirical evidence and on consultation with citizens and the justice sector stakeholders.

   Ipaye said the survey was undertaken in two categories: public survey (random selection of 2,000 members) and experts’ survey (selected 100 persons with close contact with the criminal justice process and systems).

   Over half of the respondents (51.1 percent) advised that convicts on the death row should be executed, 38.5 percent maintained otherwise, while 9.7 percent was undecided and 0.8 percent proffer no opinion.

  While 61.9 percent believed that death penalty is a necessary retributive tool, as much as 59 percent opined that it does not bring a sense of happiness to victims’ families. However, a majority (67.2 percent) recommended that it be retained, Ipaye said.

   The study also found that gender, age and religion play important roles in the respondents’ orientation on the issue of capital punishment, hence while a majority supported death penalty across socio-demographics, more males, older people and less religious people were actually in.

   More so, over 54 percent of respondents advised the state to execute convicts on death row.