a United Kingdom official assured Caribbean countries...

a United Kingdom official assured Caribbean countries that while the UK is "dead set" against the death penalty, it will not seek to victimise countries which maintain this form of punishment. Sandra Tyler-Haywood, the Non- Resident British High Commissioner to St Vincent and the Grenadines, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the UK will never use developmental aid in an attempt to strong arm Caribbean governments into removing the death penalty from their justice systems. She stressed, however, that the UK and the European Union (EU) remained in direct opposition to the death penalty and would try to persuade countries to find alternative sentences. Her comments came as Caribbean legislators recently vowed to tighten the legal loopholes that allowed convicted felons who had been sentenced to hang to escape the hangman's noose.