A majority decision delivered by the Eastern Caribbean...

A majority decision delivered by the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal sitting in St Vincent ruled that the mandatory nature of the death penalty is a constitutional violation and the death sentence should be quashed in the seven territories served by the court: Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines and Anguilla.
"Basically the reason for that is that if a mandatory death penalty is imposed, as always happens here in St Vincent and the Grenadines, for persons convicted of murder, it is being imposed without consideration of the character and the record of the individual offender or the circumstances of the particular offence and, to that extent, the judgement has decided that that is inconsistent with the fundamental respect for human dignity underlying our constitution and, in particular, Section Five which prohibits the imposition of inhuman punishment and treatment," explained Nicole Sylvester, one of the lawyers involved in the case brought on behalf of clients Newton Spence of St Vincent and Peter Hughes of St Lucia."What this means to all the persons who are on death row throughout the Eastern Caribbean is that their death penalty will be quashed and everyone who is now on death row would have the opportunity to present mitigating circumstances before a judge."For the others who come on stream after this judgement, [the imposition of the death penalty] would be dealt with by the jury and then by the judge," Sylvester added.
The case was referred to the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. In the words of Justice J Saunders: "The mandatory death penalty robs those upon whom sentence is passed of any opportunity whatsoever to have the court consider mitigating circumstances even as an irrevocable punishment is meted out to them. The dignity of human life is reduced by a law that compels a court to impose death by hanging upon all convicted of murder, granting none an opportunity to have the individual circumstances of his case considered by the court that is to pronounce sentence."