Overthrow

Millton Obote had sewn the seeds of his own downfall. His first reign had seen the promise of independence, achieved by Uganda on October 9^th 1962, give way to one-party rule. Obote outmanoeuvred the Kabaka Yekka and the Democratic Party before turning on dissenters in his own party the Uganda Peopleʼs Congress. He ruled by decree and concentrated more and more power in his own hands.

Paranoia was mixed in with real fears. Serious assassination attempts failed to claim his life. The repression, torture and jailing of opponents was followed by banning other parties and further imprisonment and violation of basic human rights. Meanwhile, the economy stagnated. Obote distrusted his military protégé Idi Amin with good cause, even before Amin made his grab for power.

Nevertheless, Obote failed to realise the extent of his unpopularity and the danger it posed. He left for a summit meeting of Heads of State in the Commonwealth in Singapore in January 1971. On January 25^th 1971 Obote was deposed.

Honeymoon and Exile

Like Caligula before him Idi Amin enjoyed a honeymoon period. Obote had described himself as a socialist. His policies were unpopular both inside Uganda and in the West. Britain, the former colonial power was accused of complicity in Aminʼs coup. Amin was portrayed as a buffoon – humorous even – but that hid a darker truth. Amin was a sociopath.

However, Oboteʼs unpopularity led to Amin being welcomed as a liberator. He assured Ugandans that he was not interested in power. He was a soldier not a politician. He would restore democracy as soon as possible. But Amin quickly grew to like the taste of power.

Obote, meanwhile, had to get used to a new reality. He wasnʼt Ugandaʼs ʻkingʼ any more. He could not brook dissent let alone opposition. His hubris had brought him and more importantly his country and people to disaster, but still Obote could see specks in the eyes of others, but not the mote in his own.

His friend, the Tanzanian President, Julius Nyerere, gave him asylum. He was joined by supporters and prepared for a triumphant return once Ugandans and the world realised that Idi Amin was far more than a buffoon, he was a despot – one of the worst tyrants Africa had ever produced. But that would take almost a decade and would owe more to Aminʼs greater hubris than to Oboteʼs skilful leadership.

It is often said that capital punishment is the ultimate deterrent. The Fitted-In Project is not convinced. No matter how harsh the punishment it cannot deter criminals who do not think that they will ever be brought to justice. Executions occurred and the crimes they were intended to deter continued.

The last executions in Britain happened just over 50 years ago. Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen were hanged on August 13^th 1964 for the robbery and murder of John West. Just two months later Labour came to power and fulfilled a manifesto promise. Capital punishment was suspended and ultimately abolished for murder five years later. It was abolished for all offences in 1998.

Wretched

For 64 years of the last century people were hanged. Hanging women was rare, but not unheard of. More often than not it was controversial. The execution of Ruth Ellis was certainly hotly debated and remains contentious even now, but three decades earlier, the execution of Edith Thompson was worse – she was petrified of the prospect of execution and cut so wretched a figure that it traumatised the executioner. John Ellis tried to kill himself a year later. Attempting suicide was then a serious criminal offence. Ellis succeeded in taking his own life in 1932.

The use of capital punishment was debated and agonised over a few times during that period. Then, as now, it had supporters – usually slamming opponents as soft on crime, but who did it protect? Did actually deter at all? We don’t think so for the following reasons:

Deterrent Tales

Satish Sekar examines some unusual stories from the last century, mainly from Britain, but not limited to that jurisdiction. Law enforcement officers knew the consequences of murder fully, yet Britain is not the only country to have executed a police officer in the twentieth century. The USA was first and Morocco put a senior officer to death – a serial rapist.

Ernest Moss may even have used the death penalty to commit suicide by proxy. John Reginald Halliday Christie – one of Britainʼs most notorious serial killers – was fully aware of the consequences of his crimes. In addition to several murders, he chose to send an innocent man to the gallows and continued killing after Timothy Evans was wrongfully convicted and hanged. How hanging the wrong man can deter anyone has yet to be explained.

Rogues Undeterred

Among the gallery of those who should have been deterred if indeed capital punishment worked were the following: a solicitor, a would-be executioner and a friend of the chief executioner – all of whom committed murder knowing that the penalty was death.

A serving police officer went to the gallows along with two former officers, and a special constable. All of them knew full well the punishment for murder was hanging. It failed to stop them. If capital punishment can not deter people such as these, can it be considered a deterrent at all, let alone the ultimate one?