Linklaters, Reprieve and Lineal win 2024 PILnet Global Partnership Award

Linklaters’ pro bono collaboration with Reprieve and Lineal, aiding the resentencing of over 5,000 Kenyan death row prisoners following a landmark Supreme Court ruling, has been honoured with the 2024 PILnet Global Partnership Award.

Following a 2017 Kenyan Supreme Court ruling which declared mandatory death sentences for murder unconstitutional, Linklaters and Lineal joined forces with Reprieve’s team in Kenya to identify the 5,000 death row prisoners whose cases became eligible for resentencing. Six years on, our pro bono partnership continues to facilitate access to justice through case tracking using Lineal’s bespoke database, as well as advocacy and evolving capacity-building workstreams. By leveraging innovative legal tech, a cross-border volunteer team, Reprieve’s expertise and meaningful local stakeholder engagement, we've achieved tangible impact and developed a framework for broader sentencing reform.

Alison Saunders, Litigation, Arbitration & Investigations Consultant at Linklaters and Partner Sponsor for this project, comments:

“This award is testament to the profound impact that strategic pro bono partnerships can have in empowering justice systems. Linklaters are grateful for the opportunity to have worked with Reprieve and Lineal on this project, and for the great progress we’ve made together in supporting resentencing efforts in Kenya. I applaud the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in the project so far, particularly Winnie and Shirly (who are Reprieve’s fellows working on the ground in Kenya) and the Linklaters trainee secondees who have closely supported delivery of this project.”

Katie Campbell, Head of Death Penalty Projects (Africa and South East Asia) at Reprieve comments:

“Creative and ambitious collaboration with Linklaters and Lineal on this project has allowed us to address complex legal and practical challenges, the scale of which exceeded Reprieve's capacity to tackle alone. I’m so happy to see the remarkable efforts of the whole team behind this project recognised in this way.”

Learn more about our Kenya Death Penalty Resentencing Project from the project’s leadership team here.

Discover more about Linklaters' Social Impact work worldwide here.

The 2024 PILnet Global Awards took place on Thursday 14 November 2024 during PILnet’s annual global forum. Find out more here.