Ghana`s parliament has voted to abolish the death penalty, joining a long list of African countries that have done so in recent years.
Currently, there are 170 men and 6 women on death row, their sentences are soon to be replaced with a life imprisonment sentence.
Death penalty has been a mandatory sentence for murder in Ghana.
Opinion surveys conducted indicate that most Ghanaians approve the abolishment.
During the last year, seven people were sentenced to death in Ghana-but none were executed. In Ghana treason is also deemed punishable by death. The last execution took place in 1993.
MP Francis-Xavier Sosu put forward the bill to amend the Criminal Offences Act and received support from the parliament`s Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
A London-based campaign organization, the Death Penalty Project (DPP), had worked with Sosu to get the law changed.
A statement from DPP stated that Ghana is the 29th African country to abolish the death penalty, and the 124th globally.
In recent years, many African states have abolished the death penalty, including Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone and Zambia.
