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The Court of Appeal has declared the mandatory death sentence unconstitutional. The court has ruled that sentence contravenes the rights of convicted person terming it a degrading punishment. The three appellate judges Riaga Omollo, Erastus Githinji and Philip Waki said the sentence meted out to convicts needed to be in line with the nature of the crime committed. The appellate judges however maintained in their ruling that in appropriate cases the courts will continue to impose the death penalty. The lawyers who contested the rationale behind the blanket death sentence Advocates William Wameyo and Timothy Bryant said this ruling will now open doors for the revision of sentences especially those where the charges ranged from robbery with violence to murder. The ruling was made after a man charged with murder moved to the Court of Appeal to have his sentence reduced from the death sentence to life imprisonment or even a lesser sentence.