(Trinidad Guardian) Government yesterday tabled legislation to remove obstacles to the death penalty and to allow for the creation of three categories of murder in T&T. The Constitution (Amendment) (Capital Offences) Bill, 2011, tabled in the name of Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, seeks to categorise the crime of murder and allow for the death penalty to be imposed for killings under Category 1, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said in a statement in the House of Representatives yesterday.
The Government has been unable to carry out the death penalty, which is the law of the land, because of a five- year limit imposed by the Privy Council in the Pratt and Morgan case several years ago. Persad-Bissessar said the Thomas and Hilaire vs Baptiste matter at the Privy Council in 1999, upheld the right of condemned persons to access international bodies to which Trinidad and Tobago has subscribed, even if such bodies were unable to or unwilling to deal with capital cases within a reasonable time so as to allow Trinidad and Tobago to comply with the deadlines laid down in Pratt and Morgan.
She added that the case of Lewis vs the AG for Jamaica (2000) “has opened the door for potential challenges to the proceedings of the Mercy Committee.” That, Persad-Bissessar explained, was because the ruling specified that a condemned person must be notified that the Mercy Committee would be meeting to consider his case, be given all information that the Mercy Committee would consider and be invited to make a written representation to the committee.
She said that case also suggested that deplorable prison conditions might aggravate the punishment of the death sentence so as to amount to inhumane and degrading treatment. According to the Prime Minister, the bill seeks to “overcome the hindrances to the implementation of the death penalty arising out of various Privy Council decisions.” Those delays include, pre-and-post-trial delay, legitimate expectation that the Mercy Committee would consider the findings of an international body and prison conditions.
Persad-Bissessar said the legislation “does not seek to impose any new penalties, it simply seeks to plug some of the loopholes that have been exploited and manipulated by murderers who have been sentenced to death according to law.” Noting that execution by hanging for convicted killers was the law of the land, the PM said her Government was committed to the resumption of hangings for convicted murderers.
Persad-Bissessar said the legislation would allow for three categories of murder. “We intend to restrict the mandatory imposition of the death sentence in relation to murder (category) 1,” she added. That category will include the murder of a member of the T&T security forces, prison officer, a judicial or legal officer. She said murders of families and witnesses in court proceedings also would fall under murder category 1.
She said in category 2 a person will be hanged if they committed more than one murder in T&T. The bill also will specify the circumstances in which life imprisonment may be imposed for murder 2 and the classification of murder 3 as involuntary homicide. Persad-Bissessar told the Lower House the people of T&T have had enough from the criminals and it was now time for the state to retaliate with full force.
She said the “terrifying tsunami of crime” in T&T has made a mockery of the state’s ability to guarantee citizens the constitutional right to security.
“This basic and fundamental right is under threat,” she told Parliamentarians. The tough-sounding Prime Minister said she refused “to let a small handful of devious criminals hold this nation to ransom while they savagely attack and brutalise our society.” She insisted her PP Government remained committed to fighting crime “frontally.” “We intend to retaliate with full force and strike back,” Persad-Bissessar stressed.
She said hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on social and training programmes to improve the quality of life of citizens over the years. Consequently, there was little or no reason for a life of crime in this country, she added. “We have tolerated it for too long and the change demanded by the population on May 24 calls for a radical and revolutionary visionary approach to our many inherited problems,” she said.
Persad-Bissessar said the law did not provide for the removal of all the constitutional rights of appeal by a convicted killer, “so there will not be another Glen Ashby” if the measure is approved. Ashby was hanged under a previous Government before a ruling was given on an appeal he filed. Persad-Bissessar, in her lengthy presentation, said the population voted on May 24 last year for change and Government intended to take “radical” actions to ensure the required change was delivered to the population.
