ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the legality of the 2008 amendment to the Penal Code, and the continued distribution of capital sentences. It argues that rumours of the abolition of the death penalty in Liberia have been greatly exaggerated. The chapter describes the context in which Liberia extended the reach of capital sentencing in 2008 in spite of the stability of that moratorium. It looks at international efforts to promote the rule of law in Liberia, and the paradoxical ways in which this, too, may contribute to pressure to retain the death penalty as a sentencing option. The chapter examines the possible effects of focusing on the question of capital punishment in isolation from broader legal reform. The amendment to the Penal Code was a symptom of a profoundly dysfunctional justice system, damaged by fourteen years of civil war and the accompanying social disintegration. The death penalty in Liberia thus cannot be treated as an isolated legal concern.