Death Penalty News

"30 years of visiting death row clients has taught me that these are vulnerable, damaged people, often with severe mental illness — while most have not had fair trials.” Saul Lehrfreund admits that last Friday was unusually rewarding. “When I went to work that morning, Sierra Leone still had the death penalty and there were 80 or 90 prisoners on death row,” he says. “When I left the office that evening, its parliament had voted to abolish it, and death row didn’t exist. All those prisoners, who’ve spent years expecting to be hanged — some will now be judged to have served their time, and released.” Lehrfreund has spent almost three decades fighting to save condemned inmates’ lives around the world. He and his colleagues — including, notably, a certain Keir Starmer QC — have won some highly significant cases, which have seen innocent people walk free and the numbers of death sentences and executions in several Commonwealth countries drastically reduced. But the decision taken by S...

Tomorrow, October 10, is recognised as World Day Against the Death Penalty. It is a useful, indeed, needed reminder of ending of the death penalty. Some 142 countries, representing 74 per cent of the UN member states, have already stopped using the death penalty, either by removing it from their penal code or by not carrying out executions for a long time. Jamaica falls within the second group: Its last execution was in 1988. And the abolitionist trend is continuing, with the number of death sentences and executions also falling. Executions were carried out in 2018 in 20 countries, representing a historic low of only 10 percent of the country total. Human rights group Stand Up for Jamaica (SUFJ) firmly opposes the death penalty at all times and in all circumstances. The death penalty is a cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment violating the right to life. The death penalty means revenge, not justice, and its abolition contributes to the enhancement of human dignity. This October 10,...

(JAMAICA GLEANER) —   Jamaica’s top prosecutor has disclosed that she will be seeking the death penalty for the five men who are set to go on trial for allegedly beheading a St Catherine woman and her teen daughter in a double murder that stirred national outrage. The disclosure came after Paula Llewellyn, director of public prosecutions, revealed that one of the accused killers, Kemar Riley, divulged “certain things” to a cellmate in what was “tantamount to a jailhouse confession”. He was later pointed out to police investigators by the person to whom he made the confession, Llewellyn said. Further, she revealed that the other four men gave video-recorded caution statements to detectives in the presence of their attorneys. “We have served a death notice and it is a capital murder indictment we are using,” Llewellyn announced yesterday in the Home Circuit Court, where the five men were set to go on trial for the July 2011 killings. CRIMINAL CHARGES R...

The British Government will be pushing for changes to the treatment of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community in Jamaica as part of its efforts to promote shared values with regional states. Outlining the United Kingdom's Strategy for the Caribbean, its six Overeseas Territories in the region and Bermuda up to 2025, British High Commissioner to Jamaica Asif Anwar Ahmad yesterday told journalists that the strategy has three pillars — partners on values, partners on prosperity, and partners on protecting people. According to Ahmad, the strategy calls for increased support for the region on the UK's priorities which include good governance, human rights and democracy, including issues such as the death penalty and LGBT rights. He noted that Jamaica already scores high in areas such as press freedom, democracy and freedom of religion, but said the UK will be pushing on other areas including shared positions in international fora. “We have no exp...

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The London-based international human rights organisation, Amnesty International, says while it welcomes a “significant reduction” in the application of the use of the death penalty in the English-speaking Caribbean in recent years, it is urging all regional countries to abolish it. “As the English-speaking Caribbean marks its first decade as an execution-free region, Amnesty International congratulates those governments who have recognised the ultimate cruelty of the death penalty and renews its calls on them and all other states that still retain this punishment to take further steps to abolish it for good,” Amnesty International said in a statement at year-end. It said figures on the use of the death penalty in the English-speaking Caribbean indicate that there has been a significant reduction in the application of this punishment in recent years. According to Amnesty International, only half of the 12 English-speaking Caribbean countries h...

Guatemala's highest court has abolished the death penalty for civil cases in a landmark ruling announced Thursday. The Constitutional Court's decision is final and will take effect once it is published in the government's official gazette. Until now Guatemalan law has allowed for the death penalty in cases of murders of people younger than 12 or older than 60; kidnappings where the victim is severely hurt or dies; assassination of the president or VP; or in certain crimes related to drug trafficking. "We cannot allow us to be one of the last countries that apply that penalty," said Jose Alejandro Valverth Flores, one of the lawyers who had petitioned the Constitutional Court to declare unconstitutional the pertinent articles of the penal code and a law governing drug crimes. "We believe it is necessary for the respect of human rights in Guatemala," he added. The Central American nation has not applied a death sentence for some year...

While making it clear that Europe would prefer if Jamaica expands gay rights and abolish the death penalty, the European Union's (EU) new representative in Kingston insists that these would not be conditions for the island to continue to receive EU economic aid. " ... There is no conditionality," Malgorzata Wasilewska, the head of the EU Delegation in Jamaica, said in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Gleaner. "It never has been, and it never will be," said Wasilewska in response to questions if the EU would demand movements from Jamaica in line with the trends in Europe. "But if in the course of our cooperation any of our values are not respected - for example, if we implement a project and during the project, there is a clear violation of human rights in the implementation - of course, we would raise that and have a conversation about it," added Wasilewska. Over the past 40 years, the EU has provided Jamaica with official deve...

Saudi policemen in Riyadh, KSA The UK's national College of Policing has earned 6.2 million pounds in the last 3 years through overseas training contracts, a freedom of information request has shown. Britain's College of Policing, the professional body for police training, has made millions of pounds in the last 3 years by training forces in countries that use the death penalty. Among the countries where the college offers training in "leadership, forensics and intelligence" are Bahrain, China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Uganda. In all, 21 of the countries where the college operates training programmes have the death penalty. Yesterday Amnesty International revealed that executions worldwide are at a 25-year-high, with at least 158 people killed in 2015 in Saudi Arabia alone. At least 25 of the countries in which the college operates have forces that have been accused by campaigners of human rights abuses and torture. BuzzFeed News has seen a docume...

Appeal Court sets aside death sentence of man found guilty of killing ACP Gilbert Kameka The man who was sentenced to hang for the murder of Assistant Commissioner of Police Gilbert Kameka has won his appeal against his death sentence. Massinissa Adams, 31, who was convicted in November 2009 along with two other men for the November 2007 murder, had appealed only against the death sentence. Attorney-at-law Carolyn Reid Cameron argued that Adams should not face the death penalty. She cited authorities to show that the Jamaican position was that life imprisonment should be imposed unless having considered all the available material and issues there is no prospect of social readaptation, and the circumstances of the case qualify it as the "rarest of the rare", the "worst of the worst" or "extreme and exceptional." Reid Cameron argued that there was no evidence that Adams was prone to violence and the judge did not address her mind to th...

"Paying one's sexual orientation with one's life" The debates that have raged around gay marriage in Western Europe and North America might have overshadowed the lack of basic rights afforded to gay and lesbian citizens in other countries. We look at where imprisonment is still a penalty for homosexual acts and where anti-discrimination laws serve to protect individuals. Death penalty Only in Africa and Asia do individuals risk paying for their sexual orientation with their lives. In five countries, legislation remains in place that punishes homosexuality with the death penalty - Mauritania, Sudan, Iran, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. In parts of Nigeria and Somalia too, the murder of gay and lesbian individuals is practised and not prohibited in state legislation. But national legislation doesn't quite capture the full picture - in many places homosexuals are murdered by vigilantes while the state turns a blind eye. In Jamaica, where homophobia is deep...

ANTHONY Hylton recognises that dealing with cultural diversity issues such as the death penalty and homosexuality will continue to prove ticklish for Jamaica’s relationship with its international partners. However, he believes that how the dialogue is managed will make a big difference. Hylton, chair of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) Policy Commission, is so convinced of the importance of how the country deals with cultural diversity that he gave the matter specific attention during an interview with the Observer last Friday to discuss the party’s longawaited Progressive Agenda. The document, which the PNP is scheduled to launch this Wednesday — the 124th anniversary of the birth of National Hero Marcus Garvey — acknowledges the difficulties associated with the issue, pointing out that “these differences may heighten cultural contradictions to such an extent as to challenge deeply embedded cultural values, norms and practices in the Jamaican society”. With ...

A ruling from the United Kingdom-based Privy Council last year seems set to make it even more difficult for the death penalty to be reimposed in Jamaica. A five-member panel of the local Court of Appeal sat in December 2009 to consider whether the death penalty should be imposed in the case of a man who shot and killed a couple while they slept. Peter Dougal's life has been spared, but from the reasons given in the majority decision, hanging is not likely to resume in Jamaica based on a 2010 United Kingdom Privy Council ruling. The Jamaican courts will now have to abide by the ruling in the case of Trimmingham v The Queen, when the death penalty is an option. The death penalty should be imposed only in cases which, on the facts of the offence, are "the most extreme and exceptional", "the worst of the worst", or "the rarest of the rare". Other criteria The Privy Council said further that the second principle is that there must be no reasonable pro...

The St Kitts and Nevis Government told the international community Monday that it has no intention of repealing the death penalty. In a report submitted to the Tenth Session of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, a new mechanism of the Human Right Council, the Government of Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas said that it would retain the death penalty for the offences of murder. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Delano Bart, acknowledged that although the issue is controversial, St Kitts and Nevis would continue to implement the death penalty. "However, having considered the matter, the Government has decided to retain it as one of the sentences available to the Court that it can use within its discretion. "We accept, from the outset that there may be some evidence that it is not necessarily a deterrent but within the context of our present society and the increasing crime rate, the Government would have great difficulty in justifying to its ci...

The Senate yesterday voted to retain the death penalty. Three senators were, however, absent. The final count was 10 for the retention of the death penalty and seven against. Opposition Senator Sandrea Falconer turned up a few minutes after the vote was taken. Efforts were made by the Opposition to delay the vote until she arrived, but it was not supported by the Government senators. When the reverse question was asked for those who were in favour of abolishing the death penalty, seven voted to abolish while 10 voted against removing it from the books. Similar case Yesterday's conscience vote in the Senate followed a similar vote in the House of Representatives, where 34 members voted in favour of retaining the death penalty, while 15 voted against. Ten members were absent and the Speaker of the House did not have a vote. While stating that he was not making a comparison between the Senate and other quarters, Speaker of the Senate Oswald Harding said he was pleased with how the mem...