More than 25,000 people are on death row worldwide right now with about 650 executions being carried out yearly. How does it feel to end up in such a cell? What do you think about when you know that any day could be your last? In the lecture The Woman Who Escaped the Death Penalty, the Ugandan Susan Kigula tells her story. She spent 19 years on death row, studied law there, and then got herself and fellow prisoners out of death row.
In the Netherlands, the death penalty was already abolished by 1870 and the constitution and conventions make it impossible to re-introduce this penalty. In many countries, however, such as the US, China, and Egypt, the death penalty is still an accepted form of punishment. So, for a part of the world's population, it is still a daily reality. This is also the case in Uganda. What do you do then, when you are sentenced to death row? Do you accept your fate? Or do you fight it?
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This lecture was instigated in collaboration with Paula en Jan Banning/HAL (Holland Amerika Lijn) and is organized by Studium Generale, JFR (Juridische Faculteitsvereniging Rotterdam), en CIA (Criminologie In Actie).
Photographer Jan Banning took pictures of death row inmates and cell complexes for his Law & Order series. He made portraits of Susan Kigula when she was in prison and just after her release.
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