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| PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar in Parliament (File Photo) |
The bill allows the death penalty for killings under Category 1, which will include the murder of a member of the country's security forces, prison officer, a judicial or legal officer as well as murders of families and witnesses in court proceedings.
The death penalty is the law in the country but the government has been unable to carry out the death penalty because of limit imposed by the Privy Council in the Pratt and Morgan case several years ago.
That case prohibits capital punishment if there has been a delay in execution of five years or more.
In a statement to the House of Representatives, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar spoke of specific cases which have worked against the resumption of hangings for murder.
She 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. She explained that delays in hearings by those bodies within a reasonable time prevents Trinidad and Tobago from meeting deadlines laid down in Pratt and Morgan.
She added that another case - Lewis vs the AG for Jamaica (2000) - “has opened the door for potential challenges to the proceedings of the Mercy Committee.”
Persad-Bissessar explained that it is 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.
Persad-Bissessar said the bill before the Parliament seeks to “overcome the hindrances to the implementation of the death penalty arising out of various Privy Council decisions.”
She made it clear that 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.”
The Prime Minister noted that hanging of convicted killers is the law and was emphatic that her government is committed to the resumption of hangings of those who are convicted of murder.
“We intend to restrict the mandatory imposition of the death sentence in relation to murder (category) 1,” she said.
She said in category 2 a person will be hanged if she or he 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 legislators it is time to retaliate with full force against criminals. The “terrifying tsunami of crime” in Trinidad and Tobago 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 legislators, adding that she will not allow "a small handful of devious criminals (to) hold this nation to ransom while they savagely attack and brutalise our society.”
Persad-Bissessar noted with hundreds of millions of dollars invested in social and training programs to improve the quality of life of citizens over the years, there is little or no reason for a life of crime.
“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 before the House will not remove all the constitutional rights of appeal by a convicted killer, “so there will not be another Glen Ashby” if the measure is approved.
The Manning PNM administration hanged Ashby before a ruling was given on an appeal he filed.
The Prime Minister stated the population voted on May 24 last year for change and Government intends to take “radical” actions to ensure the required change is delivered to the population.
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