Capital punishment in Botswana is a legal penalty, and is usually applied for murder under aggravated circumstances. Executions are carried out by
hanging
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...
. There is on average one execution per year, and the execution usually takes place some years after the trial. One execution was carried out in 2016, two in 2018, one in 2019, and one in 2020.
A controversial case was that of
Mariette Bosch
Mariëtte Sonjaleen Bosch (1950 – 31 March 2001, later named Mariëtte Wolmarans) was a South African woman who was executed in Botswana on 31 March 2001.Penketh, Anne.America and the world's executioners join efforts to block UN moves to end dea ...
, a South African immigrant who was sentenced to death for murdering her lover's wife. She was sentenced in 1999 and executed two years later. She was the fourth woman to be executed since independence in 1966 and one of the few white women ever executed in Africa. She was hanged in secret, without her relatives being notified.
The human rights organisation Ditshwanelo has campaigned against the death penalty. By 2018 over 40 African countries had stopped capital punishment and Botswana was now the only country practising it in the
Southern African Development Community
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana.
Its goal is to further regional socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security coopera ...
. In 2020, Mmika Michael Mpe was hanged for the 2014 murder of Reinette Vorster.
See also
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Botswana Prison Service
The Botswana Prison Service (BPS) is the corrections agency of Botswana. It holds pre-trial and convicted prisoners.Botswana " ''A Comparative Criminology Tour of the World''.
San Diego State University
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University of Westminster
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,
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