Saturday, March 11, 2006
Execution ban is untrue
By JASMIN BONIMY, Guardian Staff Reporter
The Attorney General's office has quashed claims that the Privy Council's ruling to strike down mandatory death sentences will banish capital punishment in The Bahamas.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Attorney General Allyson Maynard Gibson explained the effect the ruling will have on the country. Mrs Maynard Gibson said initial reports indicating the Council's decision regarded capital punishment as unlawful were untrue.
"The Privy Council has not ruled that the death penalty is unconstitutional," said Minister Maynard Gibson. "The Privy Council has ruled that in The Bahamas the death penalty remains a valid, constitutional sentence for the offence."
She added that the ruling now gives the trial judge the discretion to impose the death penalty and not automatically hand it down.
"It is entirely open to the trial judge to impose the sentence of death upon a convicted murder if he deems it appropriate after giving due consideration to representatives which the Crown and the convicted murderer may wish to make," she explained.
Minister Maynard Gibson also maintained that the death penalty will continue to be carried out.
"As you are aware The Privy Council has ruled in an earlier case that the sentence of death must be carried out expeditiously in order to be constitutional," she said. "I as your Attorney general fully endorse the belief that justice should be swift.
"I wish the Bahamian public to know that I shall do everything in my power to ensure that all sentences, including the death sentence in appropriate cases, are carried out expeditiously," she continued.
But Minister Maynard Gibson admitted that the 28 men currently on death row will have their sentences reviewed because their death sentences were mandatory.
"I am taking all the necessary measures to have all convicted murders swiftly remitted to the Supreme Court for sentencing pursuant to the requirements laid down by the recent Privy Council Ruling," she said. "The Privy Council has mandated that the mandatory death is unconstitutional and it has ordered that they must be remitted to The Supreme Court for sentencing."
She added that based on the advice she has received, there is no need for new legislation to be passed in order accommodate the Council's recent ruling.
"It is very important that when we talk about impacting positively the administration of justice that we know what the facts are and that is what we are now doing here in the Attorney Generals office," said Minister Maynard Gibson. "[We are] looking at all of our divisions, at what the facts are in terms of outstanding matters.
"I want to stress that we are going to be fully engage with the public so they can be aware of what precisely is the situation in terms of the administration of justice as it is conducted in the office of the Attorney General," she added.
Since 1973, 16 people have been executed in The Bahamas, six in the last 10 years. And following the 1993 Pratt and Morgan ruling by the Privy Council, the death penalty cannot be carried out if a prisoner has been sentenced to death and waiting the execution of such sentence on death row, for more than five years. If a prisoner who is sentenced to death remains on death row for more than five years, such sentence would automatically be commuted to life imprisonment.
Copyright © 2006 The Nassau Guardian. All rights reserved.
