Woman with Intellectual Disabilities Has Death Sentence Quashed in Tanzania
Lemi Limbu, a woman with severe intellectual disabilities, has had her conviction and death sentence overturned after spending over a decade on death row in Tanzania. Limbu, now in her early 30s, was convicted in 2015 for the murder of her daughter. On 4 March, a court in Shinyanga, northern Tanzania, ruled that she can appeal her case. She will face a retrial, although no date has been scheduled yet.
Legal experts and human rights activists have criticized Limbu's imprisonment, arguing that she should not have been incarcerated at all. Limbu remains in prison and is a survivor of repeated sexual and domestic violence. She has the developmental age of a child. Both Tanzanian law and international legal standards indicate that individuals with such intellectual disabilities should not be subjected to the death penalty.
“She was not supposed to be in prison in the first place,” said Anna Henga, executive director of Legal and Human Rights Centre, a Tanzanian human rights advocacy organisation. “I’m happy that [her conviction] has been quashed and the appeal has been allowed, but I’m sad because the court ordered a retrial, which is like starting again [after] the case has already taken more than 10 years. My worry is that it could take up to another 10 years if there are more delays.”
During her initial trial, Limbu pleaded not guilty. She is illiterate and stated she was unaware of the contents of a statement that police claimed she had made admitting to the murder. Her original conviction in 2015 was annulled in 2019 due to procedural errors. However, in 2022 she was retried and sentenced to death again. The court did not permit evidence from medical professionals regarding her intellectual disabilities or history of abuse to be presented. A clinical psychologist who assessed her concluded that she had a severe intellectual disability and a developmental age equivalent to a 10-year-old child or younger.
A second appeal was filed in 2022 and heard in February 2023.
Background and Circumstances
Limbu grew up in a household where her father physically abused her mother. She was repeatedly raped by men in her village and gave birth for the first time at age 15. Around the age of 18, she married an older man and had two more children. She endured domestic violence in that marriage until she fled to another village with her youngest child, Tabu, who was about one year old at the time.
Later, Limbu met Kijiji Nyamabu, an alcoholic who told her he would marry her but refused to accept her baby daughter, Tabu, as he was not the biological father. Shortly thereafter, Tabu was found strangled. There were no witnesses to the crime, and Nyamabu had already fled by the time Limbu reported her daughter’s death to authorities. Limbu was arrested in August 2011. Nyamabu was never detained.
Human Rights Advocacy and Legal Context
A coalition of 24 African and international human rights organizations submitted a petition last year to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, addressing the situation of women on death row across Africa. In July 2023, four UN human rights experts issued a statement expressing concern about Limbu’s case.
In Tanzania, the death penalty is mandatory for murder convictions, although no executions have been carried out since 1995. There are currently at least 475 people on death row, according to Anna Henga.
Rose Malle, who was wrongfully imprisoned on death row in Tanzania and now campaigns against capital punishment, highlighted systemic issues, stating,
“This situation is often caused by weaknesses within the justice system, starting from the stage of arrest, the investigation process, and even during the hearing of cases in court.”
Professor Sandra Babcock, a clinical professor of law and faculty director of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, who is acting as a legal consultant in Limbu’s case, said,
“Limbu has endured unimaginable suffering as a survivor of sexual violence living with intellectual disability. After spending more than a decade on death row, she should be released so that she can receive the care and support she needs.”
