Woman has sentence quashed by Tanzania court after over a decade on death row

"Under Tanzanian and international law, Limbu should not be held criminally liable, given her intellectual disability. 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."

"A clinical psychologist who evaluated her had concluded she had a severe intellectual disability and the developmental age of a 10-year-old child or younger. At her first trial, Limbu pleaded not guilty. Unable to read or write, she said she did not know the contents of a statement that police claimed she had made admitting to the murder."

"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."

Lemi Limbu, a woman in her early 30s with severe intellectual disabilities, had her death sentence and murder conviction quashed by a Tanzanian court in March after spending over a decade imprisoned. Convicted in 2015 of murdering her daughter, her original conviction was nullified in 2019 due to procedural errors, but she was retried and sentenced to death again in 2022. The court excluded evidence of her intellectual disability and abuse history. Under Tanzanian and international law, individuals with severe intellectual disabilities cannot be held criminally liable. Limbu, who has the developmental age of a 10-year-old child and is a survivor of sexual and domestic violence, will face retrial, though no date has been set. Human rights advocates express concern about potential further delays.

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