The Death Penalty Project

Caribbean Human Rights Litigation

The project has represented prisoners under sentence of death in the Caribbean in a number of landmark criminal and constitutional cases. The jurisprudence created has resulted in large parts of the domestic law being brought into conformity with international human rights standards on the death penalty. The cases and issues determined include the following: -

Pratt & Morgan -v- The Attorney General of Jamaica [1994] 2 AC 1 (the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council acknowledged that excessive delay on death row will amount to inhuman and degrading treatment).

Lewis -v- The Attorney General of Jamaica [2001] 2 AC 50 (the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council established that procedural fairness and natural justice are fundamental requirement in proceedings before mercy committees; and that it would be unlawful to execute condemned prisoners without regard to decisions of international human rights bodies)

Sankar -v- The State (Trinidad & Tobago) [1995] 1 WLR 194; Codrington -v- The Queen (Belize) (1996) PC Appeal No. 23 of 1995; and Boodram -v- The State (Trinidad & Tobago) [2002] 1 Cr App R 12 (establishing minimum requirements for competent legal representation and basic requirements of due process in capital cases).

Spence & Hughes -v- The Queen (St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Lucia) [2001] Judgment of the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal (the first successful challenge to the inhumanity of the mandatory death penalty in the Commonwealth Caribbean. This was endorsed by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the related appeals of The Queen -v- Hughes (St Lucia) [2002] 2 AC 259 and Fox -v- The Queen (St Christopher & Nevis) [2002] 2 AC 284.

Reyes -v- The Queen (Belize) [2002] 2AC 235 (the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council acknowledged the inhumanity of the mandatory death penalty in Belize).

Roodal -v- The State (Trinidad and Tobago) [2004] 2 WLR 652 (successful challenge to the constitutionality of the mandatory death penalty in Trinidad & Tobago. Although later overturned in Matthew -v- The State (Trinidad and Tobago) [2004] 64 WIR 412, the litigation resulted in the commutation of all prisoners (86 persons) under sentence of death in Trinidad & Tobago).

State -v- Boyce (The Bahamas) Privy Council decision of 8th March 2006, struck down the mandatory death sentence imposed on those convicted of murder in the Bahamas, as being in breach of the Constitution. In a densely reasoned judgment delivered by Lord Bingham of Cornhill, the Privy Council took the view that as early as 1973, the mandatory death penalty should have been regarded as an inhuman and degrading punishment.

Reyes -v- R (2002) Decision of the Hon. Chief Justice of Belize, 25th October 2002, Hughes -v- R (2002) (High Court of St Lucia) Sentencing Remarks of Hon. Mr Justice Adrian Saunders and Fox -v- R (2002) (St Christopher & Nevis) Decision of Hon. Mr Justice Baptiste, 27th September 2002 (these decisions established strict sentencing criteria in capital cases to the extent that: -

(a) the imposition of the death penalty requires special justification;
(b) it should be reserved for the worst of the worst cases; and
(c) only where there is no possibility of reform and social re-integration of the offender)

The Death Penalty Project

representing people on death row worldwide