A 2013 Execution Free English Speaking Caribbean
As an academic who teaches criminal law and writes about the death penalty debate in the English-speaking Caribbean [hereinafter the ESC]I was pleased to learn that there have been no hangings, the form of execution sanctioned by the governments of ESC nations, since 2008. I was even more pleased to have recently read Amnesty International’s report that there were no hangings in 2013 and now fewer sentenced to death at the ESC.
Despite higher murder rates in some ESC countries such as the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago, there has not been a huge “uproar” over more executions, but rather calls for the authorities to strengthen the capacity of the police to detect and prevent murders. . There were 15 new death sentences imposed in 2013 at the CES. There were two such sentences in the Bahamas, two in Barbados, at least six in Guyana, and at least five in Trinidad and Tobago. It was not a significant increase from 2012, when at least 12 new death sentences were registered. No executions or death sentences were carried out in Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guatemala, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname. As of December 31, 2012, no one was known to be on death row in Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guatemala, Saint Lucia, and Suriname. Furthermore, no death sentences were recorded in Antigua and Barbuda.
Amnesty International also reports that two new death sentences have been registered in Barbados. A total of eight men were reported to be on death row there as of December 2013. The last person on death row in Grenada had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment in 2013. No new prison sentences were imposed. death and no one was under sentence of death. At the end of the year. At least six people were sentenced to death and at least 25 were on death row at the end of 2013. Eleven men in Guyana had their death sentences commuted to life in prison during the year.
No new death sentences were known to have been imposed in Jamaica in 2013. Two men remained on death row at the end of the year, while three people had their death sentences commuted. No new death sentences were known to have been imposed in Saint Kitts and Nevis, while one person was believed to be on death row as of late 2013. The last person remaining on death row in Saint Lucia , Mitchel Joseph, had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment on 8 July 2013. No new death sentences were known to have been imposed.
No new death sentences were recorded in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, where one person, Patrick Lovelace, remained on death row at the end of 2013. At least five new death sentences have been imposed in Trinidad and Tobago and at least 39 prisoners have been sentenced. I knew they were on death row at the end of the year. Two death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment and national law maintained the mandatory imposition of the death penalty.
This is a good trend, fewer people on death row and more commutation of death sentences to life in prison. Much of this is due to the fact that most of the twelve ESC nations still retain the Privy Council in London, the judicial wing of the House of Lords, as their final court of appeal. The Privy Council ruled in 1993 that the gap between sentence and execution cannot be more than five years and that successive appeals usually take longer. If there is no execution of the prisoner within five years of the sentence, the prisoner will have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
So we’re seeing fewer hangings at the ESC; Let’s hope that this barbaric practice ends soon with the absolute abolition of the death penalty at the CES.