Sierra Leone has become the 23rd nation in Africa to abolish the death penalty after President Julius Maada Bio signed into a law a new measure outlawing capital punishment, which was initially unanimously agreed upon by the 146-seat legislature of the nation in July. Under the new law, death sentences will be replaced with either life sentences in prison or a minimum of 30 years in prison. During a subsequent ceremony in the capital city of Freetown, President Bio denounced capital punishment, calling it "inhuman", and that Sierra Leone had finally "exorcised horrors of a cruel past".

According to rights group Amnesty International alongside local official reports, 94 people were still on death row in Sierra Leone at the end of 2020, with 39 sentences handed in 2020 alone. However, no executions have taken place in Sierra Leone since 1998. The last time the death penalty was carried out by the nation was when 23 soldiers were caught in a coup attempt and executed by firing squad during the height of the 11-year-long Sierra Leone Civil War.

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