Capital punishment in Botswana

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Botswana. It is one of a few democracies which continue to enforce it. The death sentence is usually issued upon murder under aggravated circumstances and is carried out by hanging. At least one execution was carried out in 2016. The death penalty is prohibited for anyone under the age of 18.

According to official statistics issued in 1998, 32 persons were hanged between independence in 1966 and 1997. A widely recognized case was that of Mariette Bosch, a South African immigrant who was sentenced to death for murdering her lover's wife. She was sentenced in 1999 and executed two years later, one of the few white women ever officially executed in Africa.