The ten men sentenced to death on August 7 for the...

The ten men sentenced to death on August 7 for the murder of Thackoor Boodram form the single largest group sentenced to death for one murder in the history of Trinidad and Tobago.
The condemned are brothers Seenath, Damian and Bobby Ramiah, Daniel Gopaul, siblings Michael and Samuel Maharaj and Richard and Leslie Huggins, and Mark Jaikeran and Junior Phillip.
Lawyers for the 10 men have appealed the ruling and said they will take it all the way up to the London-based Privy Council, the country's highest appellate court.
They will not be able to petition the United Nations Human Rights Committee or the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights because of a government decision in 1998 to withdraw from the treaties.
Meanwhile, work is progressing on setting up a Caribbean Court of Justice to replace the Privy Council as the final court of appeal for former and present British-ruled territories in the region. Advocates say this will give them full sovereignty over their affairs.
Amnesty International and other human rights groups as well as former colonial ruler Britain have strongly criticized the use of capital punishment by Trinidad and other Caribbean countries.
They have called on the government to revoke its decisions to withdraw from the two organizations and allow death row prisoners to exhaust all their appeals and petitions.
Attorney General Ramesh Maharaj said the absence of appeals to the organizations will reduce delays in executions. But he should not expect any hangings anytime soon because of normal appeals. "The death penalty is part of the law of Trinidad and Tobago. Until the law is changed, it is the duty of the government to carry out the law," he said.
Polls show the vast majority of the country's 1.3 million population support retention of the death penalty, largely because of a growing crime rate.
Still, it does not appear to have acted as a deterrent. In 1999, when 10 men were executed, the country recorded 92 murders. In the following year, the number increased to 118. Up to August 8, 2001, the country's murder count was 79.
There are more than 60 men and 4 women in the country's death row section of the prison.
"We are alarmed at the spiralling number of prisoners on death row, which makes Trinidad among the highest per capita in the world," Amnesty spokesman Piers Bannister, said.