Susan Kigula (born 1980) is a

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

n prison reformer. Her case (''Susan Kigula and 416 Others vs Attorney General, 2009'') resulted in changes to

Ugandan }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The southe ...

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

regarding the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

Background

She was born from

Masaka Masaka is a city in the Buganda Region of Uganda, west of Lake Victoria. The city is the headquarters of Masaka District. Location Masaka is approximately to the south-west of Kampala on the highway to Mbarara. The city is close to the Equato ...

district and used to work in a small gift shop in

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

Uganda. Kigula was imprisoned in 2000. Along with her maid Nansamba Patience, she was accused of the murder of her partner, Constantine Sseremba. The court case hinged on the testimony of her three-year-old stepson. In 2009 she was sentenced to death by hanging. Kigula challenged the death sentence ruling in the

Supreme Court of Uganda The Supreme Court of Uganda is the highest judicial organ in Uganda. It derives its powers from Article 130 of the 1995 Constitution. It is primarily an appellate court with original jurisdiction in only one type of case: a presidential electi ...

, resulting in changes to Ugandan law regarding the death penalty. The two principal changes were: the death sentence was no longer mandatory in cases of murder, and the death sentence would be commuted to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

if the execution was not carried out within three years of sentencing. As a result of these changes, around 180 prisoners on

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...

had their death sentences rescinded. In November 2011, at a retrial, Kigula's sentence was reduced to 20 years in prison. She began to study for a law degree, which she completed in 2018. Kigula was released from prison in 2016. She maintains her innocence in regard to Sseremba's murder.

References

1980 births Living people Ugandan women Ugandan prisoners and detainees {{Uganda-bio-stub