After nine years on death row in Nigeria’s Enugu prison, Arthur Juda Angel’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was released five years later in 2000, after human rights activists who had been visiting him in prison appealed directly to the State Governor to grant a pardon.

Arthur awaited trial for more than two years before being sentenced to death for murder in 1986. He was transferred to the notorious death row in Enugu prison, southern Nigeria. There, he waited in a windowless, 2 x 2.5m cell for his turn to be executed. He shared that space – its cardboard box beds and single bucket toilet – with as many as 13 other death row inmates.

While on death row, Arthur witnessed numerous mass executions by firing squad or hanging. Groups of 25-50 people were executed on a monthly – sometimes weekly – basis especially under former military ruler General Ibrahim Babangida. Arthur also witnessed torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment on a regular basis. "It was like hell. We were undergoing both mental and physical torture," he says. He believes he was spared from such treatment because his family often visited him. Some of those who were not so lucky died as a result of their injuries. Others died from heart attacks or infectious diseases which were rampant in the prison.

Despite his time on death row, Arthur does not feel resentment or want revenge. "Religion and painting were part of my healing process and they have changed my life," he says. According to Arthur, Nigeria should abolish the death penalty. He feels that Nigeria has lost a lot of skilful people due to the government’s death penalty policies; people who could have contributed to society but who were executed instead after sitting for years on death row.

Arthur is one of many thousands of Nigerians whose lives have been threatened by the death penalty. He was lucky to be spared when scores have been executed over the years, mostly during the former military regimes. Despite a civilian government which came into power in 1999 under President Olusegun Obasanjo, the death penalty is still on the statute books, and is mandatory for certain criminal offences under new Sharia penal legislation introduced in 12 northern states since 1999.

There are currently over 400 death row prisoners in Nigeria, according to the latest government statistics. A national debate conducted in 2003 and 2004 highlighted how the population is divided over the issue. The abolitionists claimed that the justice system cannot deliver justice while the retentionists claim that the death penalty deters crime and that it is part of religious-based legal systems.

In July 2005, the National Political Reform Conference subcommittee recommended in its final report that "capital punishment is reserved to those young persons found to have been engaged in heinous offences such as armed robbery and cultism".