Death Penalty News

FOUR convicted killers housed in the condemned section of the Port of Spain prison at Frederick Street for decades have had their death sentences vacated. In declaring that any attempt to carry out the death sentence on the four would be in contravention of their constitutional rights, Justice Margaret Mohammed ordered that they be immediately removed from death row. She also ordered that the four be resentenced by a judge in the Criminal Assizes.

On Human Rights Day, Saturday 10 December, 2022, the Greater Caribbean for Life (GCL) urges Caribbean leaders and citizens in our region, to reflect on the fact that the theme this year: Dignity, Freedom and Justice for All, is in keeping with GCL’s goal of achieving regional/global abolition of the death penalty. The dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. The use of the death penalty is not consistent with promoting the dignity of offenders. GCL believes that society has a right to protect itself from persons who commit heinous crimes and offenders must be held accountable. However, we believe that non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect society from offenders. To date, 170 States have abolished or introduced a moratorium on the death penalty either in law or in practice. There are 55 retentionist countries in the world. According to Amnesty International, in 2021 most known executions took place in China, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia a...

A Tobago man has been sentenced to hang for the 2009 double murder of 2 teenage boys whose bodies were found close to each other at French Fort, Scarborough. Alvaro Ayers, also known as Josey Wales, was convicted by Justice Althea Alexis-Windsor at the end of a judge-only virtual trial. He was sentenced to hang for the murders of Kolen Salandy 16, and Rondell Thomas, 15, on September 19, 2009. Before the death sentence was read to him, Ayers insisted, “I am not guilty.” Ayers was charged with another man, Gary Mohammed. In October 2009, Mohammed was killed in a shootout with the police in the Moruga forest. He and another man were hiding in a camp when police approached them. Mohammed had a Tobago address but was originally from Ste Madeleine. Ayers, who had three addresses in Tobago — at Bethel, Mason Hall, and Bagatelle No 1 in Scarborough – surrendered to the police. He was represented by attorneys Amerelle Francis and Josiah Soo Hon. Sixteen-year-old Salandy, of Patience Hill, was ...

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...

The Caribbean Court of Justice has ruled out the mandatory death sentences on persons convicted of murder in Barbados because such a practice is unconstitutional. The Trinidad and Tobago based CCJ made this ruling while delivering decisions Wednesday in the consolidated cases of two convicted persons, Jabari Sensimania Nervais and Dwayne Omar Severin, who in their appeals challenged the murder convictions and the constitutionality of the mandatory death sentence for murder in Barbados. The CCJ, the institution of final jurisdiction for Barbados stated, “a section of the [Barbados] Offences Against the Person Act was unconstitutional because it provided for a mandatory sentence of death.” The CCJ indicated that both men however had their appeals against their convictions dismissed and it “ordered that the appellants be expeditiously brought before the [Barbados] Supreme Court for resentenci­ng.” The CCJ stated that before examining the issues raised by the appeal, it ...

Europe on Tuesday urged Trinidad and Tobago to follow other Commonwealth Caribbean countries and do away with a mandatory death penalty. "We don't think that's the right answer. That's not for us to tell you what to do. It's your country and you can run it as you wish. And we can well understand the public pressures there may be, the political pressures there may be, people calling in, in the face of crime, for the death penalty to be carried out," the United Kingdom Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, Tim Stew, told a news conference. Flanked by his counterparts from France, Spain, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Germany, the British diplomat said "we don't think it is effective. "There is too much evidence to show that a mandatory death penalty is not an effective deterrent to crime," he added. The news conference was held ahead of Wednesday's recognition of Europe Day and Stew said "in fact, we think it's...

Case will have repercussions for countries that still carry out executions and those that recognise jurisdiction of privy council 5 British judges will this week consider whether a prisoner who may be mentally ill should remain on death row after a Caribbean court convicted him of murdering another inmate. Although Jay Chandler is unlikely to meet the hangman in Port of Spain, the case will have international repercussions for countries that still carry out executions and those that recognise the far-reaching jurisdiction of the UK's judicial committee of the privy council (JCPC). The hearing in London on Tuesday comes amid concern over the spiralling murder rate in Trinidad and Tobago, which has reinvigorated calls for the death penalty to be enforced. Last year, 494 people were murdered in the Commonwealth state, which has not hanged anyone since 1999. Trinidad is 1 of more than 30 overseas territories, dependencies and Commonwealth states that rely on the JCPC...

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday said he supports the death penalty and that his Administration is working towards having it implemented as it moves to deal with those citizens bent on committing murder “with impunity” in Trinidad and Tobago. Rowley, speaking at the end of the weekly Cabinet news conference, told reporters that “this fight against the criminal element is a national crusade” and urged the public to assist the police in carrying out their investigations. Rowley said that even when people are incarcerated “they are running criminal empires from inside the jail and we are going to take steps to ensure that this does not go on”. He told reporters he does not care whatever the backlash could be from his position but he wanted to make it abundantly clear that he is a “firm believer in capital punishment”. “It is the punishment for the crime,” he said, noting that “it is my view that pe...

Last November, a regional conference in Guyana focused on abolishing the death penalty, which many Caribbean territories - including The Bahamas - want to keep on the books. Sponsored by the European Union (EU), the conference went completely unnoticed here. The main conclusion was that, although capital punishment did not deter crime, public support for it was closely linked to fear. As our murder rate rises to ever more "frightening" levels - which the authorities seem helpless to deal with - it is easy to see why ordinary citizens want to strike back. There is a strong sense that criminals are undermining our society. Former cabinet minister Leslie Miller recently excoriated the Chief Justice for pointing out that - under current law - it would take a massacre before the death penalty could be carried out here. Miller is one of a growing number of Bahamians who have had close relatives or friends murdered in recent years. He dismissed the judge's comment...

Chief Justice Ivor Archie has called for a serious and meaningful national debate on the mandatory death penalty for murder. He made the plea yesterday in his annual address at the opening of the 2015/2016 law term at the Hall of Justice, Knox Street, Port-of-Spain. Pointing to statistics showing that 514 people are currently on remand awaiting trial for murder, Archie questioned the effectiveness of the controversial sentence in the reduction of violent crime in T&T. Archie said: "Apart from the dubiousness of its value as a deterrent, do we really believe, assuming that a significant fraction of those persons are found guilty, that we will be able to hang several hundred people or that, if we tried, we could stomach it?" While he was careful to underscore the Judiciary's neutral role on legislative issues, Archie claimed the Judiciary's input was necessary as it was the "independent and apolitical" organisation which is mandated to execu...

The newly-constituted campaign group Greater Caribbean for Life continues its call for Caribbean countries that retain the death penalty to abolish it. T&T's Leela Ramdeen who is well known for her work with the Catholic Commission for Social Justice holds the chair. The organisation claims that tackling crime can be achieved without the enforcement of the death penalty, even though statistics show that murders in the Caribbean have increased in the past decade. T&T and Barbados are said to be the only english-speaking Caribbean countries that retain the mandatory death penalty for murder. To mark the observance of World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10, the delegation of the European Union brought together its members at the National Academy for the Performing Arts on Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain, for the viewing of a film on the topic. Earlier this year, it hosted a conference titled Delivering on the Death Penalty. Greater Caribbe...

Government is considering introducing categories of murder as it seeks to strengthen laws which deal with such crimes, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan said on Thursday last as he met with a delegation from Amnesty International (AI). Also discussed at last Thursday's meeting were mutual concerns of protection and preservation of human rights, police brutality and the need for improved efficiency in the criminal justice system. According to a statement from the Office of the Attorney General, the issue of the death penalty was discussed and while Ramlogan pointed out that the death penalty was part of the laws of Trinidad and Tobago he advised that significant attempts were being made by the Government to improve the current law by introducing categories of murder. He said the death penalty would be reserved for the most heinous of murders without any extenuating circumstances. According to Ramlogan, legislation on the categorisation of murder had been rejected when taken...

The death penalty is a shameful legacy of colonialism – now British lawyers are fighting to abolish it around the world by representing condemned prisoners in court. "If we needed to hang someone tomorrow," Martin Martinez, Trinidad and Tobago's commissioner of prisons, says, grinning wolfishly, "we would grease up the gallows and buy some new rope." Death by hanging is the penalty for anyone convicted of murder in Trinidad and Tobago, although no one has been executed here since 1999. From his air-conditioned office, minutes from the cemetery in the capital, Port of Spain, Martinez reels off the four witnesses needed: a doctor, a priest, a court official and himself, the prisons commissioner. "It is traumatising to take a man's life," he explains. "It's an emotional issue, as there is such a high murder rate here. The death penalty sends a message, but it may or may not solve the problem." Prime minister Kamla Persad-B...

The British government says it will continue to work with a number of countries including those in the Caribbean to abolish the death penalty.  In its newly released “Human Rights and Democracy Report” the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said that the United Kingdom’s long-standing policy to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances remains as a matter of principle.  “We consider that its use undermines human dignity, that there is no conclusive evidence that it has any value as a deterrent, and that any miscarriage of justice is irreversible and irreparable. Global abolition of the death penalty continues to be a priority for the UK Government.  “The international trend towards abolition of the death penalty was maintained in 2011 and we are keen to see this trend continue,” the FCO said in its newly released report, noting that in October last year, the government published an updated Strategy for Abolition of the Death Penalty, setting out its “t...

HERALDING what she described as “a new dawn in this country’s legal history”, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday announced her Government’s intention to table a bill to make the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) this country’s final criminal court, replacing the Privy Council’s criminal jurisdiction and in the process possibly clearing the way for the resumption of the death penalty. The move to the CCJ as the final criminal court, which would require a special majority in the Parliament, yesterday looked set for a clear path toward implementation after Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley and senior members of the Independent benches of the Senate indicated their support in principle. The Government needs Opposition and Independent bench support in order to pass special majority legislation. In a special statement in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon, the Prime Minister expressed “immeasurable pride” at the move towards the CCJ but was careful to poi...