Nineteen years ago nearly to the day, Abraham Galeta was sentenced to death for the murder of Philip Machesa, his stepfather.\u00a0 On May 26, 1996, Machesa came home drunk and began to beat Abraham\u2019s mother.\u00a0 Machesa had beaten her many times before, but this time was worse.\u00a0 She believed he would kill her, and called out to the neighbors for help.\u00a0 Word quickly traveled to Abraham (then 20 years old), who rushed to his mother\u2019s house with his uncle Zaima.\u00a0 Instead of apologizing, Machesa began to berate Abraham for eating his food, then grabbed a chain and hit him.\u00a0 Furious, Abraham grabbed the chain and hit him back, beating him until he fell.\u00a0 Machesa died from his injuries.\u00a0 One witness claimed that Zaima also took part in the beating, and on that basis, both men were condemned to die.<\/p>\n
On April 8, 2015, the Malawi High Court agreed to hear mitigating evidence in support of a reduced sentence for both defendants.\u00a0 Surprisingly, the state requested that the Court re-impose the death sentence.\u00a0 This was the first case in which the state sought the death penalty since the Malawi courts began holding resentencing hearings pursuant to the High Court\u2019s judgment in\u00a0Kafantayeni and Others v. Attorney General.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0(See my April 24 blog post for more on this).<\/p>\n With the support of the Cornell Human Rights Clinic (including law student Aysha Valery, who assisted in drafting the written submissions to the court) and Reprieve fellow Tom Short, legal aid lawyer Chimwemwe Chithope-Mwale argued persuasively that Abraham\u2019s actions had been provoked by Machesa\u2019s vicious beating of his mother.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n But the prosecution refused even to entertain the argument that Abraham deserved compassion for what he had done.\u00a0 In essence, I believe this case is as much about the widespread acceptance of violence against women as it is about the death penalty.\u00a0 If domestic violence were not tolerated in Malawi, it is hard to imagine how the state could possibly request the death penalty for a crime committed under these circumstances.\u00a0 Indeed, in case after case in which domestic violence is described in judicial proceedings, it is presented as a \u201cquarrel\u201d between husband and wife.\u00a0 Sometimes it is said that the husband \u201cpicked a fight\u201d with his wife.\u00a0 This quaint phrasing belittles the gravity of domestic violence and the real risk to human life that it presents.<\/p>\n Thankfully, the Malawi High Court rejected the state\u2019s arguments, and decided that Abraham had served enough time for his crime\u2014although Zaima must serve an additional year before his release.\u00a0 Abraham walked out of prison yesterday.<\/p>\n Abraham is still young enough that he may be able to marry and have children.\u00a0 Soon, Zaima will join him in their village, and one hopes that the two men will live long, healthy, and productive lives.\u00a0 The Malawi High Court is to be commended for this outcome.\u00a0 As of today, the Malawi courts have resentenced 26 prisoners who were originally sentenced to death under the now-unconstitutional mandatory death sentencing regime.\u00a0 Sixteen have been released, and another nine have been given determinate sentences.\u00a0 None have been resentenced to death or life imprisonment.\u00a0 One hopes that this trend will continue.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nineteen years ago nearly to the day, Abraham Galeta was sentenced to death for the murder of Philip Machesa, his stepfather.\u00a0 On May 26, 1996, Machesa came home drunk and began to beat Abraham\u2019s mother.\u00a0 Machesa had beaten her many times before, but this time was worse.\u00a0 She believed he would kill her, and called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,76,86],"tags":[80,81,87],"class_list":["post-2048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-access-to-justice-fr","category-advocacy-fr","category-africa-appeals-project-fr","tag-access-to-justice-fr","tag-advocacy-fr","tag-africa-appeals-project-fr"],"better_featured_image":{"id":161,"alt_text":"","caption":"Photo of Abraham enjoying his first chips in 19 years at a nearby 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