CCJ DEATH PENALTY APPEAL

JUDGMENT in the appeal by the Barbados government to prevent the death sentence of two murder convicts from being commuted has been reserved to a date to be announced.

The appeal, which was heard by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) president Michael de la Bastide and members Rolston Nelson, Duke Pollard, Adrian Saunders, Desiree Bernard, Jacob Wit and David Hayton, came to an end yesterday following submissions by attorneys for the Barbados government and the convicted men Lennox Ricardo Boyce and Jeffrey Joseph.

Boyce’s attorney Alair Shepherd QC argued that there was no difference between protection by the law and due process.

“The right not to have your legal process preempted by executive action is a Common Law right, which is extended to an individual right to international access,” Shepherd said, adding that the Common Law embraced that right.

According to Shepherd, a warrant should not be read to any convicted person while an appeal was pending before the Privy Council or the CCJ. “That reading must be preceded by a second hearing by the Barbados Privy Council (Mercy Committee),” because the Council would need to consider any recommendations made by the International Committee, the attorney said.

Shepherd relied heavily on the 2000 Privy Council judgment of Neville Lewis, which stated that a death warrant could not be read to a convicted person while there was a pending appeal.

Boyce and Joseph were convicted of the April 1999 murder of 22-year-old Marquelle Hippolite and were sentenced to death on February 2, 2001. They appealed to the Barbados Court of Appeal and the appeal was dismissed on March 27, 2002.

Another appeal was made to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, who dismissed their final appeal on July 7, 2004. The two men then sought clemency from the International Committee on Human Rights on September 3, 2004, and before their petition had been determined death warrants were read to them on June 26 and July 22, 2002.

The two contended before a High Court judge that under Section 78 of the constitution, their constitutional rights had been infringed. The judge, however, ruled against the condemned men, causing them to appeal that decision before the Barbados Court of Appeal.

The appeal panel commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment.