Under the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone, capital crimes included aggravated robbery, treason, mutiny, and murder.
Two men, Baimba Moi Foray and his bodyguard, Foday Kamara, were sentenced to death by hanging in October 2016 after being convicted of the June 2015 murder of popular Freetown radio DJ Sydney Buckle.
After their sentences were handed down, Alfred Paolo Conteh, Sierra Leone's Minister of Internal Affairs at the time, publicly ordered prison staff to clean the gallows at the Freetown Central Prison,[2] believing that publicly advocating for the death penalty would result in a reduction in criminal activity, particularly from gangs, as he communicated in a radio statement: "I have given instructions to the prison officers to clean and ready the tools and machines used to kill people, as reckless killing is on the increase.
We have lost a lot of people through reckless killing and ended wasting resources feeding such prisoners for several years.
Thirty-four military officers had participated in an attempted coup d'état on May 25, 1997, and were subsequently convicted of treason, which carried the death penalty.
Subsequent to the parliament's ruling and President Bio expressing his intention to sign off on their decision, all 99 of Sierra Leone's death row inmates had their sentences commuted.