Masendeke was executed in 2004 after committing various crimes including murder and escaping from Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison.
In an interview his brother Erick (42) said “Following our brother’s execution, society has a bad perception about our family. They think we are all murderers and we are given all sorts of names.
“The moment I mention my surname people always associate me with Edgar – even though he died eight years ago,” he said. “I think life imprisonment is the best. We are not at peace because of the way our brother died. Each time we are faced with a misfortune we just think it is his spirit and we are forced to perform rituals often,” he added.
He said that the Masendeke family has been paying for a crime they did not commit as some families demanded to be compensated for the death of their relatives who are believed to have been murdered by Edgar.
“There are some families whose relatives were murdered by Edgar, they demanded that we compensate them for their loss,” he said.
Section 4.5 in the new draft constitution, allows for the imposition of the death penalty on a person convicted of murder “committed in aggravating circumstances,” but exempts from the application of the death penalty all women, men under 21 years at the time of the commission of the crime, and those over 70 years of age.
Rights groups are pushing for the total removal of the death penalty. The Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender is in the process of garnering more than a million signatures for a petition against the death sentence.
Post published in: News