JAMAICA. DEATH PENALTY 'STALEMATE' REMAINS

"As long as the law remains as it is, nobody is going to be hanged in Jamaica. Nobody," Justice Minister Senator A.J. Nicholson was reported to have said.
"You have five years from conviction and sentence until the person is hanged. If the five years pass, the person cannot hang," he said, "the processes cannot be completed in five years." The 1993 Pratt and Morgan ruling in force in Jamaica stipulates that sentences on death row prisoners must be carried out within five years or be commuted.
The UK Privy Council, in its Pratt and Morgan ruling, failed to put time constraints on appeals, which Nicholson has consistently interpreted as a subtle signal of the UK law lords' anti-death penalty leanings. Locally, support for hanging remains strong.
"Some people say we must bring back hanging - I agree," said professor of international law, Stephen Vasciannie, an advisor to the justice minister. "I believe that all persons are entitled to a fair trial, but if the case is clear, and if the jury agrees that the case is clear, then, our current murder rate of 62 in every 100,000 persons requires us to act. But, I am keen to emphasize that we should not be bloodthirsty about this," he continued. "We should be absolutely sure that we are hanging the guilty." His colleague, Professor Trevor Munroe, a government senator, also called for mandatory death sentences for all child killers, following several cases of vicious murders and sexual abuse of minors.