The human rights group Caribbean Justice accused former...

The human rights group Caribbean Justice accused former Trinidad and Tobago's Attorney-General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj of double standards on the issue of state executions. Caribbean Justice's Coordinator Shelagh Simmons, in an open letter to Maharaj, said that her organization was surprised at the statements coming from Maharaj in which he was critical of the Patrick Manning administration over its failure to execute persons on death row. Maharaj had reportedly told supporters of his National Team Unity that abolishing the death penalty would be tantamount to giving in to the criminal elements in society. In her letter Simmons recalled earlier statements by Maharaj in which he referred to the death penalty as being cruel, noting he had once indicated "hanging must be an act of desperation by the government in its inability to deal with crime".