Death Penalty News

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...

Attorney at Law, Mary Francis, has dismissed a statement Thursday by National Security Minister, Hermangild Francis, in support of capital punishment, asserting that implementing the death penalty will not solve the 'murder crisis' in Saint Lucia and the Caribbean. "If the issue of the death penalty was not such a serious matter, I would say that his comments are laughable to me," Mary Francis told Saint Lucia Times. The National Security Minister had complained that criminals were being given a slap on the wrist by the courts, and announced plans to visit the gallows at Bordelais Correctional Facility (BCF) to ensure that the mechanisms were in working order. But Mary Francis has declared that she cannot not see how, in this 21st century, implementing the death penalty will address the problem of murder. Saint Lucia has so far recorded 37 homicides. "We are fooling ourselves into believing that if you send people to the gallows, automatica...

Government officials in Saint Lucia have rejected a request by the United Kingdom to waive its death penalty, in exchange for assistance in solving crime. Saint Lucia is part of the Commonwealth of Nations which encompasses some 53 countries, most of which were former British colonies. Saint Lucia's Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony has described the UK Foreign Office request "improper," while the Island's Foreign Affairs Minister Victor La Corbiniere says that as a sovereign state, Saint Lucia will decide its position on capital punishment for itself. La Corbiniere added that he will not be swayed by the UK or the European Union on this matter. The death penalty is rarely used in Saint Lucia, with the last hanging on the island taking place in 1995. "We will determine whether or not we abolish the death penalty and my government is on record as indicating that we are not at this moment going to consider the abolition of the death penalty. So th...