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Why did South Africa’s Constitutional Court rule that capital punishment was unconstitutional in 1995?

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Padded gurney with black restraints and IV stands, used for lethal injection, sits in a bare room with white cinder block walls at the New Mexico state penitentiary. — capital punishment Lethal-injection room.

In 1995, South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled that capital punishment was unconstitutional, effectively outlawing a practice for which the country had previously held one of the world’s highest execution rates.1

The court determined that the death penalty was incompatible with the nation's emerging "human rights culture." Specifically, the justices ruled that capital punishment violated the constitutional prohibition against cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment. This decision marked a significant shift in the country's legal landscape, moving away from the state-sanctioned violence that had characterized the apartheid era, during which the government had frequently utilized executions against political opponents and those involved in acts of sabotage.12