ConCourt ruling on death sentence deferred

The Constitutional Court has deferred proceedings over a challenge by two men seeking their death sentences to be commuted to life imprisonment and another seeking life imprisonment to be repealed on the basis that the two forms of punishment are unconstitutional and inhumane.

The postponement came after the trio's lawyer Tendai Biti filed further heads of argument on Wednesday to buttress the appellants' cases.

Farai Lawrence Ndlovu has been on death row for the past three years following his conviction for the murder of Michael Sunderland and Geoffrey Andrew while Wisdom Gochera has been waiting for the hangman's noose for the past 14 years after he was convicted for murdering South Africa's Spoornet International Railways executive secretary in 2001.

The two through Biti are challenging the legality of the death penalty on the basis that Section 48 of the new constitution entitles them to protection of their right to life.

Obadiah Makoni, who is serving a life sentence is challenging the sentence for being inhuman and degrading and advances an argument which proposes clemency mechanisms for life sentence prisoners so that life sentence can be reduced.

Following the filing of further heads of arguments challenging the Attorney General's response which disputed the appellants challenge on the basis that they are seeking a retrospective application of the constitution to remedy historical wrongs the Constitutional Court postponed the matter to the first week of the next judicial term.