Death Row Cases Caught in Constitutional Court Limbo?

In this episode of Case by Case, we examine Botswana’s death row cases that remain unresolved — not because of appeals or new evidence, but because of a constitutional stalemate at the very top. Several inmates have exhausted the legal process and are awaiting the President’s signature to carry out their death sentences. Yet the signatures have not come. In the public sphere, one explanation dominates: the President may be holding off until the Constitutional Court is fully constituted — a court that does not yet exist in practice. We unpack what the law says, what the Constitution allows, and what happens when executive discretion, judicial absence, and the right to life collide. Is this delay a safeguard? A legal grey area? Or a quiet suspension of capital punishment by default? This is not a debate about guilt or innocence — but a closer look at power, process, and the consequences of constitutional uncertainty. Case by Case — examining justice, one case at a time.