Every Oct. 10, the world marks the World Day Against the Death Penalty, calling on governments and citizens to reconsider one of the most serious powers a state can exercise: taking the life of a person convicted of a crime. This year, the debate feels particularly close to home, with fresh death sentences in Uganda and a planned firing squad execution in the United States. Can justice protect victims and punish offenders without ending another life?
Pope Leo XIV used this year’s observance to renew the Catholic Church’s opposition to capital punishment, describing it as an attack on human dignity. He argued that public safety and justice can be achieved without executions, provided offenders are effectively detained. His message also leaves room for something that is often forgotten in discussions about punishment: the possibility of redemption.
Opposing the death penalty does not mean excusing murder or asking victims’ families to forget their suffering. Parents who lose children to violence deserve justice. Families affected by kidnapping and murder deserve answers, accountability and support. But must the state take another life to prove that the life already lost mattered?
Uganda offers painful examples. In April, Christopher Okello Onyum was sentenced to death for murdering four young children at a daycare centre in Ggaba, Kampala. The killings shocked the country. Onyum later appealed against his conviction and sentence, challenging the court’s assessment of the evidence and its rejection of his insanity defence. His appeal places the case within a wider debate about punishment, due process and the finality of execution.
Another case involves the 2018 kidnapping and murder of businesswoman Susan Magara. In August, the High Court sentenced Hajara Nakandi and Abbas Musa Buwembo to death for their roles in the crime, while seven other convicts received life imprisonment. The court also ordered the sale of properties acquired using ransom money, with the proceeds going to Magara’s family. The case shows the severity of crimes for which Ugandan courts impose the maximum punishment.
On Oct. 7, the High Court in Iganga sentenced eight men to death over the murder of two fishermen in Namayingo District. The killings arose from mob violence, in which the victims, Robert Bagume and Moses Okech, lost their lives. The case presents a disturbing contradiction: people who participate in unlawful killings in the name of justice can themselves face the harshest punishment under the law.
Uganda retains the death penalty for certain serious crimes, although it has not carried out an execution since 1999. In June, Uganda Prisons Service spokesperson Frank Baine said 93 inmates were on death row, including two women. These are not merely figures in a report. They represent people awaiting the outcome of legal processes, alongside victims’ families who continue to live with the consequences of serious crimes.
The debate extends beyond Uganda. U.S. President Donald Trump has authorized the execution of former Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting in Texas. The execution by firing squad is scheduled for Dec. 3, 2026, although legal proceedings could delay it. The Pentagon has announced plans to livestream the execution, a proposal that has attracted criticism from religious leaders and politicians. Trump has said he will make the final decision on whether the broadcast proceeds.
Pope Leo’s message came as the proposed broadcast drew international attention. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin questioned the purpose of turning an execution into a spectacle, arguing that other ways of administering justice exist. The criticism raises a question beyond Hasan’s guilt, which was established in court: what does society gain by watching a person die? Accountability is one thing. Making death a public event is another.
Supporters of capital punishment argue that some crimes are so grave that death is a justified response. They also believe the threat of execution can deter potential offenders and provide a sense of justice to victims’ families. These concerns deserve a fair hearing. However, evidence that the death penalty deters murder more effectively than other severe punishments remains disputed. The European Union and Council of Europe have said available evidence does not establish that executions deter crime better than other sentences.
There is also the danger of an irreversible mistake. Courts depend on investigations, witnesses, evidence and legal arguments, and errors can occur at different stages of a case. Appeals provide an opportunity to challenge convictions and sentences, while new evidence can sometimes change the understanding of a crime. A prison sentence can be reviewed or corrected. An execution cannot be undone. This does not mean every death sentence is wrong, but it does mean that the consequences of an error are final.
Uganda must continue to confront murder, child killings, kidnapping and mob violence firmly. Investigations must be thorough, trials fair and appeals handled without unnecessary delays. Victims’ families deserve support and timely justice. Yet the country should also have an honest discussion about whether capital punishment is necessary when long prison sentences can protect the public from dangerous offenders. Justice must be more than punishment; it must also be fair, consistent and mindful of the value of human life.
The question is not whether the lives lost to violent crime matter. They do, profoundly. It is whether protecting human life requires the state to take another life after a conviction. The World Day Against the Death Penalty invites us to consider whether justice can be firm without being irreversible, and whether accountability can leave room for redemption. A society is judged not only by how it responds to wrongdoing, but also by the principles it upholds when anger and grief are understandable.
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