A Tanzanian court has quashed the conviction and death sentence of Lemi Limbu, a woman with severe intellectual disabilities who spent more than a decade in prison awaiting execution. The Shinyanga court on 4 March allowed her to appeal and ordered a retrial; no date has yet been set.
Limbu, now in her early 30s, was first convicted of murdering her daughter in 2015. Rights lawyers and campaigners say she should never have been held criminally responsible because she has the developmental capacity of a child and was never able to understand or meaningfully participate in the criminal process. Under Tanzanian and international law, severe intellectual disability can preclude criminal liability.
Critics say the case demonstrates repeated failures in the justice system. Limbu, who is illiterate, pleaded not guilty at her first trial and maintained she did not understand the contents of a police statement attributed to her. Her original 2015 conviction was nullified in 2019 because of procedural errors. In a 2022 retrial she was again sentenced to death; that court declined to admit medical evidence about her disabilities and history of abuse. A clinical psychologist who has evaluated Limbu concluded she has a severe intellectual disability and a developmental age of about 10 years or younger.
Advocates welcomed the latest ruling but warned that ordering a retrial effectively restarts a process that has already lasted more than a decade and could lead to further delay. Legal and human rights campaigners have pressed for her release and for access to appropriate care rather than continued criminal prosecution.
Limbu’s life has been marked by persistent violence and sexual abuse. She grew up in a household where her father beat her mother and was repeatedly raped by men in her village. She had her first child at 15, married an older man around 18, had two more children, and suffered ongoing domestic violence before fleeing with her youngest child, Tabu, then about one year old. After meeting a man who said he would marry her but would not accept Tabu, the child was found strangled. There were no witnesses; the man had fled by the time Limbu led police to the body. Limbu was arrested in August 2011; the other man was never detained.
The case has drawn regional and international concern. A coalition of 24 African and international human rights organizations appealed to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and four UN human rights experts wrote to the Tanzanian government expressing concern. Tanzania retains the death penalty as a mandatory sentence for murder, though no executions have been carried out since 1995 and more than 500 people remain on death row. Former death-row prisoner and campaigner Rose Malle and legal experts involved in Limbu’s case have urged that she be released and given the care and support she needs after enduring more than a decade of detention and the prospect of capital punishment.