Defying Death Row

The number of countries that still use the death penalty has fallen to fifteen, the lowest ever recorded according to Amnesty International. Yet 1,518 people were executed last year, the highest yearly rate of death penalties globally since 2015. Numbers can feel abstract, but what is it like to face such a fate?

Ugandan lawyer and activist Susan Kigula knows this reality firsthand. At just 21, she was sentenced to death for the alleged murder of her husband. During her years in prison, she began studying law and ultimately helped overturn her own conviction as well as those of hundreds of others. She now campaigns globally for the abolition of the death penalty.

During this college tour, international law expert Nina Mileva will speak to Susan Kigula about her years on death row, her judicial fight and her ongoing efforts against the death penalty.

Susan Kigula is a Ugandan lawyer and human rights activist. In 2002 she was sentenced to death for the murder of her husband. While on death row, she studied law through a distance-learning program and successfully challenged the constitutionality of Uganda’s mandatory death penalty. Her case led to a historic Supreme Court ruling that saved many inmates from execution. After her release in 2016, Kigula became an advocate for prisoners’ rights and an international voice against capital punishment.

Nina Mileva is Assistant Professor of International Law at the University of Groningen. She holds a PhD in public international law (University of Groningen, 2023), and since 2019 she has been teaching on a variety of subjects including human rights law. Mileva's research focuses on public interest litigation, critical approaches to law, and the relationship between national and international law.

In collaboration with the Faculty of Law and the RUG Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) strategy 2022-2026.

If you're not able to attend the event in person, watch the livestream here.

Photograph: Jan Banning