AdvocAid board member and former Executive Director Simitie Lavaly spoke recently at the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly. During her time at AdvocAid, Simitie represented eight women and men on death row, advocated for better conditions for women in detention and engaged stakeholders in the criminal justice system. AdvocAid is the only organisation in Sierra Leone that provides free legal representation for women and men on death row to challenge their convictions. Since 2006, we have secured the release of six women on death row through appeals or presidential pardon applications.
Because of our extensive experience, AdvocAid was invited to speak as a panellist at a High-Level Side Event: “The Death Penalty And The Gender Dimension: Exploring Disadvantages And Systemic Barriers Influencing Death Sentences”. The event is part of the cycle of awareness-raising events against death penalty. This year, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Conference, the event explored the impact of capital punishment from a gender perspective, analysing discriminatory laws, policies and practices that have a negative impact on women’s socio-economic status and their access to justice. The event looked into the concerns specific to women and what a gender equality focus tells us about the situation of women facing the death penalty.
The death penalty in Sierra Leone applies to murder, treason and armed robbery. Murder is the main crime for which women may face death sentences. Women who kill are often responding to highly abusive situations and acting under severe psychological stress. AdvocAid’s research [add in link] shows that of women in prison for harming their partner, 94% reported that they had been beaten, bullied, belittled, or sexually harmed by that person prior to the crime, while 69% said they acted in self-defence. In such cases, the threat of even the ultimate punishment has no deterrent effect.
AdvocAid’s research shows the extent to which imprisonment is linked to social factors such as poverty; lack of education; trauma and abuse; mental health issues; and addiction. About half of women in prison had been subject to childhood abuse, 72% had suffered violence as adults at the hands of their partners, and 45% from someone other than their partner, usually their father, uncle, neighbour or a male acquaintance. Over half of women in prison are illiterate, and 45% have never been to school. These low levels of education contribute to the fact that some women had signed confessions or pleaded guilty to charges that they did not understand. Many did not understand the court proceedings as English is not their first language.
In Sierra Leone, there is no legal provision for a history of abuse to be considered and women have to rely on existing defences, such as self-defence or provocation, which are not suitable for women who have experienced prolonged abuse. With a jury system having a majority of men as jurors and also male judges sitting on murder trials, courts often do not have appropriate guidance or training about how to take victimisation into account when determining guilt or sentence. These issues heighten the chances of miscarriages of justice occurring in capital cases. In particular, women who kill in self-defence are unlikely to receive justice.
An important first step is for states who have the death penalty in their laws to place a moratorium on it. Sierra Leone has implemented the moratorium since 2001 and has taken steps to commute death sentences to life imprisonment. Nevertheless, people continue to be convicted of murder and sentenced to death. There are currently 78 people on death row, an increase of over 50% in the past year alone.
The work that AdvocAid has done on the death penalty has been done through specialist legal advice – where paralegals and lawyers have received gender-responsive training and delve into the historical background of the client they are assisting. We have also engaged the judiciary and enabled people on death row to be able to appeal against their conviction after the maximum time limit of 21 days.
However, this kind of work takes time and determination to follow through since appeal cases can take many years to conclude. That is why long term funding for civil society organisations is vital. AdvocAid has also focused on sharing the voices and stories of women on death row to challenge perceptions of the public and criminal justice professionals. Many judicial actors, particularly defence lawyers, do not have sufficient understanding about the impacts of violence on women and can resort to stereotypes.
Police officers, prosecutors, judges and defence lawyers should consider a woman’s background and take this into account. Prosecutors and judges must also take care to ensure that survivors of violence are not subjected to further harm through imprisonment.
Specifically, during the prosecution and sentencing, courts should take into account claims of self-defence by women who are survivors of violence. Rule 61 of the Bangkok Rules calls for provisions for judges to be able to take into account the circumstances of an offence and also a woman’s caretaking responsibilities. It also calls on states to remove mandatory sentencing provisions so that judges can exercise discretion when sentencing.
Maintaining the moratorium is important, but there is still need for advocacy for the abolition of the death penalty. As the only country to have had a special tribunal on war crimes and crimes against humanity located in the country where the atrocities occurred, we see that justice can still be done for victims without resort to the death penalty. The rejection of the death penalty and its replacement by a humane and flexible system of imprisonment is becoming the litmus test for all countries that purport to respect international human rights norms. We are proud to be part of the international movement against the death penalty, bringing the world closer to a complete abolition.