The Grenada High Court ruled that the death sentences...

The Grenada High Court ruled that the death sentences handed down in 1986 to the so called "Grenada 17" were unconstitutional.
The group, including former Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard and his wife Phyllis, who were convicted of the 1983 murders of former revolutionary Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and other members of his cabinet, subsequently had their death sentences commuted in 1992 to life in prison by the then National Democratic Congress government.
However, defence attorneys made an application approximately two years ago asking the court to quash the original judgment.
In his ruling, Justice Kenneth Benjamin concluded that the original sentences of the court were unconstitutional, while highlighting the cases of Hughes and Spence from St Lucia and St Vincent respectively, in which it was upheld by the London-based Privy Council that on a conviction for murder, the death sentence was not mandatory.
The judge also ruled that the subsequent commutation of the sentences to life imprisonment was also unconstitutional based on the doctrine of the separation of powers which states that the governor-general, as part of the Executive, has no authority to impose sentences and that only the judiciary could do so.
In 1992 when the NDC government decided to commute the death sentences, the governor-general at the time imposed the sentence of life imprisonment on the prisoners for the rest of their natural lives. The court noted that only the judiciary had such powers.
The judge ordered that the men be removed from where they were serving their life sentences and be brought into the remand section of the prison, to awaiting a sentencing hearing.
Justice Kenneth Benjamin also ruled that the failure of the Grenada Court of Appeal at the time to give written judgment was a violation of the prisoners' constitutional rights.
The ruling also stipulated that they would have to be paid compensation as a result of the failure of the court of appeal to give written judgment.