St Lucia's Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony told a one-day...

St Lucia's Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony told a one-day consultation on the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) that the time had come for the Commonwealth Caribbean to engage in serious debate on the retention of the death penalty. Dr Anthony also defended efforts to establish the CCJ as the court of last resorts in the English-speaking Caribbean, replacing the UK-based Privy Council. "If it is the case that the death penalty is a relic of our colonial past and if its de facto retention has been facilitated by our respective legislatures and not by our courts, then it seems to me that the energy of the court's detractors should not be focused on whether the CCJ should be established but whether we should continue to retain the death penalty per se," Anthony argued. "I make the point only to suggest that it is disingenuous to undermine the integrity of the court on this basis without facing up to the more fundamental issue of whether the time has come for us in the Commonwealth Caribbean to begin the discussion about the retention of the death penalty in earnest," he added.