In 1982 Mpagi Edward Edmary, a Ugandan taxi driver, was sentenced to death for the brutal murder of his neighbour. But not only was Edward an innocent man, there hadn't even been a murder. Edward had been framed after a land dispute between families in the village got out of hand. Witnesses were bribed to say they had seen him kill the man and dispose of the body. He spent the next 20 years in Kampala's notorious Luzira prison and was only released when his family proved that the dead man had been hiding out in another part of the country. He told Matthew Bannister how his ordeal started.
According to Edwards narration of his ordeal, he said he was just arrested and told that he had robbed so-and-so. and later he heard he had not only robbed this fellow, but that he stabbed him as well and that the fellow was dead.
He was charged to court, and four eye witnesses testified that they had seen him when he committed the murder and disposed the body. After the trial was over, then he was sentenced to die. But at the time, a death sentence only meant life in prison, that was until the present government took over in 1989 that executions were actually being carried out. When i got there, he said, the place was so congested that i thought they would just take us straight to the gallows (because it was just close-by). I was certain I would die.
They finally found room for me, took my clothes and gave us two little blankets; one for the floor and one for covering.
Experiences such as were attainable in such places were very extremely and could even drive some people mad, especially knowing you were all for nothing, but according to Edward, he resorted to prayer an teaching to keep himself going until the time of his execution.
He constantly pleaded with God to show him mercy and save him - a prayer I'm sure he must have believed to be mere fulfillment of righteousness as he knew the certainty of the verdict. He also prayed that God will also show mercy to those who had wrongly accused him and forgive them for what they had done.
He lived in constant fear everyday that this verdict may be carried out. Most times they could hear the sounds of those being executed nearby and their screams of farewell right before they were killed. The prisoners had to make the hoods used to cover the head of those to be executed and to carry them to be buried after they had breathed their last. Putting it mildly, these were indescribably horrid times for the man, Mpagi.
Meanwhile back home, the 'murdered person' who had long moved to another part of teh country, sometimes returned home, but ony at night. When this was noticed, Edward's family wrote to the attorney general of the federation - severally, I can imagine - asking for the release of their loved one with the facts of the case, but as the case was a cold one, and with the Judge who had sentenced him, long dead, it took a long time to materialize.
Finally, he was released one fateful evening in 2000 after roughly 18 years in jail. The breeze couldn't have felt better. The skies couldn't couldn't have glowed brighter. The dead man walking, had finally been given back his life.
He said there were parties back home. His sons were all 'big boys'. Everything was different, but of course 'different' was okay to him. In deed, those hopeless prayers made near prison walls, were registering in the ears of an able One. He was hearing all along.
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