ADMINISTRATION OF THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN GOMBE STATE: AN APPRAISAL

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Department of Law

ABSTRACT
The main aims and objectives of this desertion titled; ADMINISTRATION OF THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN GOMBE STATE: AN APPRAISAL is to appraise, evaluate, estimate and review the level of efficacy of the application of the Death Penalty in Nigeria, whether the retention of this Penalty in our Criminal Justice System is effective or not? Presently the international community is moving towards total abolition of the Death Penalty for all crimes, the United Nations Resolution No 62/149 and 63/168 calling for moratorium of the use of the Death Penalty has been ratified by the Nigerian Government but is yet to be domesticated into its laws. Prisons records as at 10th November 2015 shows that Nigeria has about 1,669.00 convicts on Death Row cells, many of them have been convicted for more than 10 years. The legal technicalities involved coupled with the refusal of many State Governors to sign death warrants has made it difficult if not impossible to carry executions, therefore many death row inmates live in constant fear and agony for many years and serving a separate term of punishment not initially part of their original sentence. Prison records also shows 1from year 2000 to 2015 death row inmates rose from 435 in year 2000 to 1,669 inmates in December 2014, almost 383.6% increase, during this 15 years only 12 executions were carried on. Nigerian prisons cannot coup with this increase due to lack of adequate facilities to keep this inmates. Therefore this thesis aims at evaluating these problems and recommend solutions to it. The thesis is divided into five chapters, the first chapter contains the main introduction, the reasons behind embarking on this research such as aims and objectives, justification, methodology, literature review, the scope of the research is focusing on Gombe State as a case study, with references to other North East States in order to get an accurate result that can be applicable to other states of the Federation.The second chapter contain the concept of Criminal Justice System and its dimensions this include an overview of the legal frame work for the Criminal Justice System appraising the penalty under the Military regime, the Penal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code, The Criminal Procedure Act, the Sharia Penal Laws, the offences that attracts death penalty in Nigerian. Methods of execution and the role of other organs like Police, Attorney General, Prisons who are responsible for the administration of Criminal Justice System. In chapter 3 the researcher discussed the argument for or against the death penalty, presenting both arguments and Nigerian concern over the penalty and finally the general assessment of the two arguments. Chapter 4 is the empirical aspect of the thesis, where the researcher conducted a field research by visiting prisons, distributing questionnaires, conducting face to face interviews with the stake holders in the Administration of Criminal justice System in Nigeria to get real facts on the ground which can give accurate information on the application of death penalty. Finally, chapter V contains the summary, observation and recommendation. The findings indicated that most of those who participated in the study are in favor of the application of Death Penalty. The finding also showed that Nigerian prisons are not fit to serve as rehabilitations centers, most if not all our prisons were built around 1960 or thereabout with little or no facilities to serves as prisons, also the findings revealed that inmates lives in constant fear of Death every day while awaiting their execution. in the opinion of human 1 See table (1) and ((2) of Chapter 4 of this research. right actives that constant fear amount to mental torture, ( anticipation of Death is worse than Death itself) the findings also indicated that many death row inmates favored the idea of introducing the concept paying blood money (Diya) than face death penalty (which is natural) all this and many other findings are contained in chapter five. Finally the research recommended the retention of the application of Death Penalty in Nigeria, restructuring the Criminal Justice System, rehabilitate the Nigerian prisons, Government should facilitate speedy trials for capital offenders, and where possible introduce the concept of Diyah to save the life of the convict as “Diya” will also allow the victim's family to gets some compensations (financial benefits). Finally it is recommended that the Supreme Court must confirmed all the death sentences before execution can be carried on, this will go long way in reducing the miscarriage of justice, the fear, the mental torture this inmates are experiencing in prison for years