African Court orders Tanzania to end mandatory death penalty, hanging

The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights has ordered Tanzania to amend its laws to end mandatory death sentences for murder and abolish hanging as the sole method of execution. The landmark ruling, delivered on June 5 by an eight-judge panel, found that Section 197 of Tanzania's Penal Code violates rights to life, dignity and due process. It arose from three applications by seven death-row inmates, whom Tanzania must resentence and remove from death row, and report on compliance steps.