We Can Kill Those Who Killed Capt. Maxwell Adam Mahama But It Should Be Done Lawfully

What do we want? Justice for Capt. Maxwell Adam Mahama? To kill those who killed him? Oh yes ! That is very simple. We can kill them because our laws permit killing of people who have been tried and proven guilty of murder charges despite the fact that Amnesty International is impressing upon us to expunge it from our law books. I believe it should be there and apply them when necessary.

It can still be done with much ease. In fact, no hustle at all. The prisons services are there to ensure that they are killed but not through instant firing at the shooting range as a section of the public are calling for, and for that matter missing the days of the revolution. How many of the youths in this current generation saw the revolution anyway? We are only told by our parents and grandparents who are gradually fading away with the painful memories of the atrocities some innocent Ghanaians went through in the hands of soldiers during military rule.

The firing squad is unlawful and unconstitutional way of killing people during the the military rule so we should allow it to belong to history as it is believed that many innocent Ghanaians were wasted in that manner without a fair hearing or trial before a court of competent jurisdiction. We can still kill them but it should be done constitutionally and in a democratic manner else we may be guilty of the same crimes that the alleged murderers committed by killing the Captain.

Section 46 of the Criminal Code (Act 29/60) states emphatically that he who is guilty of murder shall suffer death penalty. This is crystal clear and does not need any Constitutional interpretations from the Supreme Court. It's black and white in the Criminal Code and has not been repealed or ammended. Death penalty for those who are guilty of murder charges and not to waste about it. The law does not prescribe any punishment for murderers apart from death penalty so we should rather call for due processes of the law and not instant execution of them at the firing squad. The fact they were lawless doesn't mean the whole country should also follow emotions and be lawless because our country is govern by laws in a democratic dispensation.

Section 47 of the same Act defines murder as "Whoever intentionally causes the death of another person by any unlawful harm is guilty of murder, unless his crime is reduced to manslaughter by reason of such extreme provocation, or other matter of partial excuse... Here the law goes ahead to cites grounds on which murder charges can be reduced to manslaughter and that is through extreme provocation or other matter of partial excuses. Did Capt. Maxwell Adama Mahama provoke his assailants extremely to warrant his untimely death? If not, then we are likely to gain some convictions on the charges of murder if prosecution is able to make a strong case at the court.

We can still kill them if we really want to. It's a matter of the president signing the death warrants after trial and hand them over to the prisons. They will execute them without wasting our time. I am told there are some prison officers who take execution allowances. I don’t know whether they are still taking it since they implemented the single spine salary structure. If they are still taking it, then it means that there are some prison officers who are paid by government to kill people who are proven guilty of murder charges and other felonious crimes like treason and high treason. We can still fulfil the biblical saying that "he who draws the sword dies by the sword" constitutionally and democratically. It's still not late so tell our colleagues in the military fraternity to hold their breaths. We are now in democratic country where the rule of law is supreme.

The problem however with the death sentences and its execution is our presidents who blatantly refuse to sign death warrants for people who are proven guilty by courts on murder charges to be killed. That is a shirk of legal responsibilities by our presidents and probably some of the reasons why mob attacks and lynching of people seem to be on the rise. One of the effects of death sentence is to deter others from committing such crimes after justice is served. People have forgotten that if you kill, you will also be killed so people commit heinous crime with impunity as we saw in the case Capt. Maxwell Adama Mahama. We must remind them that death sentences still exist

My checks indicates that the last time a death sentence was executed in Ghana was 1993 under the watch of H.E Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings. Since Paapa J left the office as the president of the Republic, all the succeeding presidents have failed to sign the death warrants which is a legal breach. It is a clear case of abuse of human rights for the courts to condemn people to death and yet the nation fails to take up its responsibilities to kill them. We are only torturing them psychologically which is against their human rights. Isn't it a contempt of court to have failed to carry out the orders of a court and a slap in the face of our justice system? I believe it is.

We can put H.E Nana Akuffo Addo to test with the death of Capt. Maxwell Adama Mahama if we really want justice to be served and not being emotional with the whole thing. In no time, our emotions will heal particularly those of us who are not directly connected to the family of Capt. Maxwell Adama Mahama. The media will turn their eyes somewhere and discuss unreasonable political shows. When no one is watching, that is when people can escape justice after several adjournments in the court. We only talk in times of crisis and forget when our emotions are healed. That is our nature as country and people.

I don't know about Ghana but in some jurisdictions, members of the deceased family are invited to watch the execution of people who are proven guilty of murder charges. Psychologists believe that watching someone who killed a relative of yours dying painfully gives you some kind psychological reliefs and increase your confidence in the law because justice is served. You become satisfied emotionally and psychologically whereas others schools of thoughts call for total forgiveness.

We can equally do same by inviting the general public to watch how those who are likely to be proven guilty of murder charges in the case of Capt. Maxwell Adam Mahama will be executed by hanging since we want to see them dead. If their deaths is what will give us psychological relieve of our traumas due to how the Captain was gruesomely killed instead of calling on powers that be to put stringent measures to ensure that mob attacks and lynching are totally elminated from our society. Just imagine that after the judgment and the following day, it is in the news that the killers of Capt. Maxwell Adama Mahama have also been killed after proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction? That one sound more democratic than handing them over to the soldiers to execute them by firing squad at the shooting range.

We are in a democratic country and our ability to enforce the law will make the rule of rule of law effective. Tell the presidents to sign death warrants pilling on their desks. They should clear backlog of all death sentences on their desks to serve as deterrent to others. I do not want to sign death warrants that is I am not a president.

In Ghana, we kill murderers by hanging them because that is what the law says and not through firing squad because rule of law has come to stay.

Ahanta Apemenyimheneba Kwofie III
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