86 killers escape hangman

THE British Privy Council yesterday ruled that the mandatory death penalty will remain as the law of Trinidad and Tobago. More than three months after hearing arguments in the appeal brought by convicted TT killer Charles Matthew, the Judicial Committee, by a 5-4 majority, restored the mandatory death penalty in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, but said it no longer applied in Jamaica. It was the first time in the history of the Privy Council that nine judges sat on an appeal. After hearing arguments between March 22 and 30, judgment was reserved until yesterday. The Law Lords reversed their own judgment of November 20, 2003, in another Trinidad case of Balkissoon Roodal in which they ruled that the mandatory death penalty was no longer applicable. But while the larger Privy Council restored the mandatory death penalty yesterday, they have commuted the death sentences of 86 persons on Death Row in Trinidad.

Lord Hoffmann, who delivered the majority judgment, said when the Roodal judgment was delivered, it gave the judges of the High Court a discretion to sentence convicted killers. All persons on Death Row were eligible to be re-sentenced since the mandatory death penalty was unlawful. He said the persons on Death Row had a legitimate expectation since November 2003 that they will come up for a review. “Mr Roodal himself is no doubt awaiting a similar hearing and there may be others in the same position.  But the effect of their Lordships’ decision today is that a judge would have no discretion to change a death sentence which has already been imposed according to law. Such a re-sentencing cannot therefore take place.” Lord Hoffmann said Charles Matthew was another expectant individual. “He has been given the expectation of a review of his sentence, additional to the possibility of presidential commutation, of which he is now deprived. Their Lordships think that it would be a cruel punishment for him to be executed when that possibility has been officially communicated to him and then taken away.”

Quoting from their own decision in the 1993 Pratt and Morgan case, Lord Hoffmann said “to execute these men now after holding them in suspense after so many years would be inhumane punishment.” He said those persons who were sentenced to death and awaiting execution at the time of the judgment will have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. On the other hand, he said this does not apply to persons convicted and sentenced to death after yesterday’s judgment, even though they may have been awaiting trial at the time of the Roodal decision. There are 81 men on Death Row at the Port-of-Spain State Prison and five women at the Golden Grove Prison. However, they will not be removed from Death Row now. The Mercy Committee, headed by National Security Minister Martin Joseph, will meet and after considering the Privy Council judgment, will then recommend to President George Maxwell Richards to commute the death sentences of the 86 convicted killers. It may take weeks before Death Row is empty.

The last time Death Row was emptied was in January 1994 when 42 killers had their death sentences commuted after the Pratt and Morgan judgment. The majority judgment comprised Lords Hoffmann, Hope, Scott, Rodger and Sir Edward Zacca. The minority judgment came from Lords Bingham, Nicholls, Steyn, and Walker. Lords Bingham, Steyn, and Walker delivered the majority decision on Roodal. In his judgment, Lord Hoffmann ruled that any laws existing before the 1976 constitution were saved. He said he found it impossible to accept that Parliament, by enacting Section 5 (1) of the 1976 Act, may have created a mechanism outside the constitution for undermining the effect of its provision. Charles Matthew was sentenced to death by Justice Carlton Best in the Port-of-Spain Assizes on December 3, 1999 for the murder of Louise Gittens at Olton Road, Arima.

He lost his appeal before the TT Court of Appeal and the Privy Council. On January 12 this year, the Privy Council granted Matthew leave to appeal against sentence. His case was argued by Edward Fitzgerald QC, Douglas Mendes SC, Gregory Delzin, Desmond Allum SC, Rajiv Persad, Ruth Brander and instructed by Saul Lehrfreund and Parvais Jabbar. Appearing for the State were Sir Godfray Le Quesnel QC, Deputy Solicitor General Carol Hernandez and acting Chief State Solicitor Christophe Grant, instructed by John Almeida. SEE FULL JUDGMENT ON PAGE 15 SECTION B

Mendes: No victory for TT

ATTORNEY Douglas Mendes SC said yesterday’s Privy Council ruling to uphold the death penalty in Trinidad and Tobago was no victory for this country. He stated: “Values change over time and therefore you must have the leeway to interpret the constitution when faced with changing values. “Nowadays, all over the world the mandatory death penalty is considered to be an unjust penalty because there isn’t any opportunity to consider whether there are any mitigating circumstances. Because of this ruling we are now stuck with that law.” The attorney said the legislature now has to decide “whether they are going to step in.” “I don’t think there is anything to be pleased about,” Mendes said. He added that the ruling retards the development in constitutional rights in many areas besides the death penalty. “The result of this ruling is that we are stuck with archaic laws,” Mendes lamented.

Seunath: Death penalty ruling a victory for TT

PRESIDENT of the Assembly of Southern Lawyers, Hendrickson Seunath SC, yesterday hailed the Privy Council judgment declaring the death sentence mandatory, as a victory for Trinidad and Tobago. Seunath said it was now open for the legislators to consider the mandatory death sentence for kidnapping and drug trafficking. The lawlords reversed a previous decision of their own, delivered last year, and have now held what the existing law is in this country — mandatory death sentence for murder. The judgment that has been reversed is the case of Balkissoon Roodal versus the attorney general. Yesterday’s judgment therefore means that a judge in the High Court shall continue to pass the sentence of hanging on all persons found guilty of murder.

Seunath said the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council had provided some measure of comfort that the death penalty was still in the statute books as the law of Trinidad and Tobago. “The issue of the death penalty has been dogged for too long. This is a measure of some comfort,” Seunath said. Former Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Indra Ramoutar-Liverpool, said it was refreshing to see that the very Privy Council which recently decided  the death sentence was not lawful, had now reversed itself. “That the death sentence is mandatory as the law in the Statute (Offences Against the Persons Act) declares, is the law in Trinidad and Tobago.” Ramoutar said the existing law stated that a judge “shall” impose the death sentence on a person found guilty of murder. The lawlords by their judgment, Ramoutar added, have interpreted the meaning of the word “shall,” to mean “mandatory and not discretionary.”