adminChief Court Reporter
Death-row inmate Shylet Sibanda, yesterday withdrew her constitutional application seeking to quash a death sentence imposed on her and have it replaced with an appropriate punishment in line with the new Constitution as her sentence had already been commuted to life imprisonment.
The new Constitution spares all women, men under 21 at the time of the crime and those over 70 from the death penalty.
It also outlaws the imposition of the death penalty as a mandatory punishment.
Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, leading the full constitutional bench accepted the move by Sibanda’s lawyer Advocate Fadzayi Mahere, to withdraw the application because it was overtaken by events.
“The matter is struck off the roll,” said Chief Justice Chidyausiku.
Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association (ZWLA) had brought the application to the Constitutional Court on behalf of Sibanda, on death row for four years, and Rosemary Margaret Khumalo on death row for 15 years.
Khumalo died at Chikurubi Maximum Prison at the age of 69.
Online Reporter