Pritchard warns against death penalty quick fix

Noting the calls for the restoration of the death penalty, he said fixing the system needs to be done in a calm, objective, evidence-driven way and it is in the national interest as well as the international reputational interest of any country in the world which wants to fast track capital punishment to make sure that this is done in an evidence- driven way.

Pritchard was speaking with journalists during a news conference at the residence of the British High Commissioner in Maraval after a day of talks with “key actors” on the death penalty. He said he would “prefer to see an informed debate before any fast-tracking or changes in the law takes place and to see what is the latest data and statistical and academic analysis globally so that at least any changes or any fast-tracking is done in an informed way.” He said he was impressed with the calibre of the people in the local criminal justice system as well as with the politicians he had met. He said there were some very able public servants and he believed that the majority of them would like to see any change in the law be an evidence- driven one and any debate be an informed debate and not “a rush to judgement, a rush to headlines and a fast-tracking of a process without due process and without evidence.” Asked if he has stressed to the Government the danger of using the death penalty as a quick fix, Pritchard said he had done so but, the Government officials responded that it was the law of the land “but I think they also are conscious that any change in Government policy or fast-tracking of existing legislation would be more carefully and considerably received if those recipients internationally and in-country were to see that the Government had provided an imperical evidence base to that amendment to a law or a change to the law, to going round the law, if you can go around the law, whatever it might be. And I think it is important to listen to retired justices and chief justices and senior judges in this country and to listen to academics.” He said while he was visiting from another country, if he were a citizen of this country, he would be pressing for an objective review which would try and understand what people are really thinking as opposed to what they think they are thinking based on data from 2011. He said that in addition to that review the Government should try and have an informed debate based on the best evidence and academic studies available.

British High Commissioner, Tim Stew, said that in tackling the backlog in the criminal justice system, a number of legislative measures needed to be put in place but this needed to be done as a package.

For one thing, he observed there is no plea bargaining in the system and said there was no reason why someone facing the death penalty would plead guilty and why their attorney would advise them to do so. He added that the mandatory nature of the death penalty also slows down the course of justice because if there were alternative forms of sentencing, perhaps having to do with the length of time the guilty person would spend in prison if that period was appropriate to the nature of the crime, would encourage plea bargaining and this would inevitably shorten the length of court cases and speed up justice. However, he said he would not advocate any one measure as the solution to the country’s problems but what was needed was a package of measures and a programme of work which he said was already being developed with help from the United Kingdom to make the changes and speed up justice in Trinidad and Tobago.