South Africa waives death penalty for 62

South Africa’s Constitutional Court today waived the death sentence for 62 prisoners condemned before capital punishment was abolished in 1995, saying it should be replaced by an alternative sentence to end 10 years of legal limbo.

The court set a deadline of August 15 for prison authorities to submit a report with full details on what progress had been made in complying with its order, including the name of every person detained under sentence of death.

The death penalty – a measure used to intimidate black activists in the apartheid era – was declared unconstitutional, cruel and inhuman in 1995 by the government of President Nelson Mandela, who swept to power in democratic elections the previous year.

Four prisoners on death row appealed to the court in March, saying they should be given a new trial and sentence to end their uncertainty.

The court said there was no need for a new trial but upheld their appeal for a new sentence, saying the process of commuting the death sentence had “taken far too long".

Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson commented that it was intolerable that imprisonment on death row should have been allowed to continue for so long after sentence, according to the South African Press Association.

“Are these people in limbo somewhere in jail?” he said. ”They may stay there forever because nobody knows what to do with them.”