JUNE 28

BARBADOS: 4 men plan appeal to London's Privy Council to block executions in Barbados

 4 men sentenced to hang in Barbados next week are filing appeals to London's Privy Council, the highest court of appeal for many former British colonies of the Caribbean, defense lawyers said Thursday.

 A marshal on Wednesday read death warrants to the 4 convicted murderers - Michael Huggins, 27, Frederick Atkins, 31, Lennox Boyce, 25 and Jeffrey Joseph, 27 - after Barbados' Mercy Committee turned down their appeals for clemency last week.

 "The death warrants have been read to them, and the executions are scheduled for Tuesday," said John Nurse, superintendent of prisons.

 However, defense lawyers filed requests in Barbados High Court on Thursday that the executions be stayed, and planned to lodge appeals on Friday with the Privy Council.

 The council has repeatedly frustrated Barbados' efforts to execute prisoners by granting clemency in several cases over the past decade. The last hangings in Barbados were in 1984.

 "We are seeking a stay of execution as a 1st step to an appeal to the Privy Council," defense lawyer Andrew Pilgrim said.

 "The government is fully aware" of the plans for appeal, Pilgrim said, adding that the British solicitor for the case, Charles Russell, had already been notified.

 The death penalty issue has been widely discussed in the region since the Privy Council ruled in March that mandatory death sentences were unconstitutional in 7 Caribbean states.

 The council's 5 judges agreed that to deny an offender the opportunity to persuade the court against the death penalty was to deny basic humanity and rights guaranteed by the countries' constitutions.

 The ruling increased resolve by 10 Caribbean countries to form a regional supreme court and scrap their 170-year relationship with the Privy Council, which they accuse of hindering efforts to enforce the death penalty.

 Most countries in the region have popular majorities that support the death penalty as a deterrent to violent crime.

 During radio talk shows in Barbados on Thursday, most people who called to discuss the four men's cases expressed frustration that the London-based court could interfere in the sovereign state's judicial system.

 There were some dissenting views. Roman Catholic Bishop Malcolm Galt, of Bridgetown, urged authorities to grant the stay of execution so that "the necessary appeals on humanitarian and other grounds may be heard."

 Of the 4 men, Atkins was a bus driver before he was convicted in 1998 for the murder of 20-year-old Sharmaine Hurley and sentenced in 2000 to hang.

 Boyce and Joseph, of St. Peter, were convicted of killing 22-year-old Marquelle Hippolyte in 1999. And Huggins, of St. Michael, was convicted for the 1999 murder of 21-year-old Stephen Wharton.