The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC)...

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) delivered judgments in the appeals of Peter Hughes (St Lucia), Berthill Fox (St Kitts and Nevis) and Patrick Reyes (Belize). The Law Lords confirmed the April 2001 decision of the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal (ECCA) and unanimously struck down the mandatory death penalty for murder in Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The JCPC made one modification to the ECCA's ruling, saying that sentences should be set by a judge and not a jury. All Death Row cases in these countries will now have to be reviewed. Lawyer Saul Lehrfreund said the implications are "huge", and that a "completely new set of procedures restricting the imposition of the death penalty in the first instance" will have to be introduced. However, Saul Lehrfreund, the lawyer at the London solicitors' firm Simons Muirhead and Burton who represented the prisoners, believed the ruling would influence other Caribbean countries that retained the right of appeal to the Privy Council, including Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and the Bahamas.