Amnesty condemns death penalty in English-speaking Caribbean states

Apr 23, 2002

By HOWARD CAMPBELL, 

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Amnesty International on Tuesday criticized English-speaking Caribbean nations for inadequate judicial systems that continue to impose the death penalty when other nations, particularly in Europe, shun capital punishment.

In a 40-page report, the London-based human rights organization urged former British colonies in the Caribbean to "rid themselves of this cruel legacy of their colonial past."

The issue has been hotly debated in the region following last month's Privy Council ruling that mandatory death sentences were unconstitutional. The London-based council, which acts as the highest court of appeals in former British colonies in the Caribbean, allows convicts to persuade a jury against imposing a sentence of death.

 Several former British colonies however, such as Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, still mete out mandatory death sentences for certain crimes.

 The human rights group singled out the two countries for having the highest number of people on death row in the Caribbean, but said there was hope since the two countries had not executed anyone in several years, said Piers Bannister, the organization's regional research director.

 Bannister and other Amnesty officials met with Jamaica's Security Minister on Tuesday to discuss the country's stance on capital punishment, but he did not give details of the meeting.

 Jamaica, with 52 people on death row, executed its last prisoner in 1988, while Trinidad, with 100, had its last hangings in 1999, Bannister said at a news conference in Kingston.

 Amnesty said apart from having no proven deterrent effect, the death penalty carries the risk of killing innocent people.

 Many Caribbean countries' judicial systems fall short of international standards for imposing capital punishment, Amnesty said, noting that prisoners had been executed in Trinidad and Jamaica before they had a chance to appeal the death sentence.

 It also cited reports that some countries' police had beaten suspects to coerce confessions, and that many countries had failed to offer adequate defense lawyers, both at trial and on appeal.

 "Even the most ardent supporter of the death penalty should be concerned at the quality of the judicial system employed to inflict the ultimate punishment," Bannister said.

 No Caribbean state's constitution prohibits the execution of the mentally ill, despite a U.N. safeguard passed in the 1980s.

 Prisoners on death row in many countries in the region are confined to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, including tiny, airless cells, sometimes no bed and almost no medical care, Amnesty said.

 The unanimous Privy Council decision in March forced several Caribbean countries to reevaluate death row cases or institute constitutional changes to comply. The countries affected by the ruling were St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, and Belize.

 However, the ruling will likely increase 10 countries' resolve to form a regional supreme court and scrap their 170-year relationship with the English-speaking Caribbean's highest court of appeal.

 St. Lucia Attorney General Petrus Compton said then that the ruling was another argument for the region to establish the court to replace the Privy Council.

 His counterpart in Barbados, Mia Mottley, said the island would not be bound by the ruling, and lamented that former colonies had allowed the judicial arm of government "to reside outside the jurisdiction, and then we call ourselves proud, independent and sovereign people."

 Amnesty is to meet with officials in Trinidad and Tobago later this week, he said. Trips area also planned for Guyana and the Bahamas, which was the last Caribbean country to carry out the death penalty, hanging two people in 2000.

 The United Kingdom abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes in 1965.