AG welcomes decision

ATTORNEY GENERAL John Jeremie yesterday welcomed the Privy Council’s judgment which restored the mandatory death penalty in Trinidad and Tobago. The Law Lords overturned their own decision of November 20, 2003, in the Balkissoon Roodal case. That decision, had it stood, would have made the mandatory death sentence in Trinidad and Tobago null and void. “I consider the law in relation to the application of the death penalty to be finally and conclusively determined by today’s decision, and I am pleased that the well-established interpretation placed on the savings clause in the constitution has now been reaffirmed,” Jeremie added.