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In a series of Caribbean death penalty cases, a range of issues relating to the scope of the death penalty, minimum pre-trial guarantees, procedural safeguards in capital trials, delay, prison conditions and the method of execution have been addressed by international human rights bodies. This has in turn produced a rich source of jurisprudence on capital punishment in an evolving human rights context from the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the Inter American Commission and Court on Human Rights. Violations of international human rights law have been established in more than 50 complaints brought on behalf of indigent death row prisoners in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Below are some examples of the cases and issues that have been determined by international human rights bodies: - United Nations Human Rights Committee: - In the cases of Eversley Thompson and Rawle Kennedy , the mandatory death penalty for all cases of murder in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago respectively was held to violate the right to life under Article 6(2) of the ICCPR . In Thompson, the Committee also found that the applicant's conditions of detention violated the Covenant. In Kennedy, the Committee found that delays in judicial proceedings, ill treatment by police and poor conditions of detention and denial of legal aid for constitutional motions constituted further violations of the ICCPR. In the Michael Freemantle case, conditions and ill-treatment on death row in Jamaica were found to violate the ICCPR. In the Sextus Sandy case against The Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, the Committee held that unreasonable pre-trial delay of over 4 years violated the Covenant. In the Raffick Sahadath case, also against The Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, the Committee found the issuing of a warrant for execution of a mentally ill person violated the ICCPR. The Inter American Court of Human Rights In the Hilaire case against the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago (Judgment, 21st June 2002), Saul Lehrfreund and Parvais Jabbar were appointed by the Inter American Commission on Human Rights as representatives for 32 applicants under sentence of death in the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. This was the first contentious Caribbean death penalty case to be determined by the Inter American Court. In a landmark judgment, the Court found a number of violations of the American Convention on Human Rights as a result of the mandatory death penalty, conditions of detention on death row and pre-trial delays. The Inter American Commission on Human Rights Violations of the American Convention on Human Rights have been established before the Commission on behalf of prisoners under sentence of death in Jamaica, Grenada and the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. Cases that the project has filed before the Commission include the Baptiste -v- Grenada (38/00 - Case No. 11.743) which dealt with the mandatory death penalty, the right to apply for mercy, conditions of detention and lack of legal aid and Downer, Tracey and Others -v- Jamaica (41/00 - Case No. 12.146) which dealt with the mandatory death penalty, the right to mercy, pre-trial delay, conditions of detention and legal aid. |
