An English-speaking Caribbean free of execution in 2013

As an academic who teaches criminal law and writes about the debate on the death penalty in the English-speaking Caribbean. [hereinafter the ESC]I am pleased to learn that there have been no hangings, the form of execution sanctioned by the governments of ETUC countries, since 2008. I was even more pleased to have recently read Amnesty International’s report that there were no hangings in 2013 and that now there are fewer prisoners under sentence of death at the ESC.

Despite the higher homicide rates in some ESC countries, such as the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago, there has not been a big “hype” for more executions, instead the authorities have been called upon to strengthen the capacity of the ESC. police to detect and prevent murders. . In 2013, 15 new death sentences were imposed at the ESC. There were two such sentences in the Bahamas, two in Barbados, at least six in Guyana, and at least five in Trinidad and Tobago. This was not a significant increase over 2012, when at least 12 new death sentences were recorded. No executions were carried out or death sentences were imposed 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 under sentence of death in Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guatemala, Saint Lucia, and Suriname. Furthermore, no death sentences were recorded in Antigua and Barbuda.

Amnesty International further reports that two new death sentences were recorded in Barbados. A total of eight men were reported to have been sentenced to death there in December 2013. The last person sentenced to death in Grenada received commutation of sentence to life imprisonment in 2013. No new death sentences were imposed and no one was convicted to 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. In Guyana, eleven men received commutation of the death sentence to life in prison during the year.

In 2013, there was no news of the imposition of new death sentences in Jamaica. Two men remained under sentence of death at the end of the year, while three people had their death sentences commuted. No new death sentences were reported in St. Kitts and Nevis, while one person was believed to be on death row at the end of 2013. The last person left on death row in St. Lucia, Mitchel Joseph had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment on July 8, 2013. No new death sentences were received.

There were no new death sentences in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, where one person, Patrick Lovelace, was on death row at the end of 2013. At least five new death sentences were imposed in Trinidad and Tobago and at least 39 prisoners were known to be on death row by the end of the year. Two death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment and national legislation 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 ETUC countries still retain the London Privy Council, the judicial wing of the House of Lords, as the final court of appeal. The Privy Council ruled in 1993 that the gap between sentence and execution cannot exceed five years and successive appeals often take longer. If there is no execution of the prisoner within five years of the sentence, the sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment.

So we are seeing fewer hangings at the ESC; let us hope that this barbaric practice will soon end completely with the absolute abolition of the death penalty at CES.