Lemi Limbu is in her early 30s, has severe intellectual disabilities with the developmental age of a child, and is a survivor of repeated sexual and domestic violence. She was convicted of murdering her daughter in 2015. Her conviction was nullified in 2019 but she remained incarcerated awaiting retrial. In 2022 she was retried and again sentenced to death without consideration of her disabilities or history of abuse. Lawyers report deteriorating physical and mental health, including difficulty walking and a swollen stomach. An appeal filed in 2022 has no hearing date. Tanzania mandates the death penalty for murder.
This is a woman who absolutely should not be in prison, said Prof Sandra Babcock, a clinical professor of law and the faculty director of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, who is acting as a legal consultant in Limbu's case. This is a woman who is not violent, who represents no threat. You could release her tomorrow, and, as long as she had some kind of support for her disability, she would be able to live a reasonably productive life in society.
A survivor of brutal and repeated sexual and domestic violence, she has the developmental age of a child. Limbu's legal team is now worried about her deteriorating health. On a visit to the prison in June, one of her lawyers found that Limbu required assistance to walk, her stomach was swollen and her mental health had worsened.
She looked sick, weak and sad, the lawyer said. In Tanzania, the death penalty is the mandatory sentence for murder. Limbu's original conviction in 2015 was nullified in 2019 due to procedural errors. But she remained incarcerated awaiting a new trial. In 2022, she was retried and sentenced to death a second time. The court did not consider her intellectual disabilities or history of abuse.
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