Antigua Empties Death Row

Antigua’s death row is empty for the first time in years as two of the remaining death row prisoners have been released and four others resentenced. Antigua has not executed anybody since 1991 but retains the death penalty for aggravated murder.

Lorriston Cornwall and Michael Mason had both been sentenced to death in 1996 following separate murder convictions. During the two decades they spent on death row the prisoners had been read their death warrants and measured for coffins, but both narrowly avoided execution.

Cornwall and Mason are now free after the High Court resentenced them both to fixed term sentences. The four remaining death row prisoners received life sentences, all reviewable for release between 35 and 45 years.

Antigua joins five other retentionist countries in the Caribbean that now have empty death rows; Cuba, Dominica, St Lucia and most recently Belize and Jamaica.

The Death Penalty Project assisted Cornwall’s legal team in the resentencing proceedings. Read more about this case.