Murder and treason are capital crimes.

Murder and treason are capital crimes. In September 2002 Guyana enacted new legislation making loosely-defined terrorist acts a capital crime. The Criminal Law (Offences) (Amendment) Bill imposes a mandatory death penalty in all cases in which a death results from a terrorist act. Guyana, a member Nation of the Commonwealth, since1970 “severed its ties” with the Judicial Committee of the London-based Privy Council. In 2001, Guyana was one of eleven states to ratify an agreement to establish the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to replace the Privy Council as the final court of appeal in the region. The Caribbean Court of Justice was inaugurated in Trinidad on 16 April 2005, and Guyana is one of the states that have already decided to switch to its jurisdiction. On 24 September 2004, Guyana ratified the Statute of the International Criminal Court which excludes the death penalty. In 2010, when Guyana appeared before the United Nations Human Rights Council in the framework of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the Government rejected recommendations to set a formal moratorium on executions and remove all legal provisions for mandatory death sentences with a view to abolishing the death penalty. However, Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett had said the country did commit to holding various consultations with stakeholders to follow-up on the recommendations of the UPR process. On 14 October 2010, Guyana’s parliament voted to partially abolish the mandatory death penalty for people convicted of murder. The amendments allow for a judge to issue a life sentence of or a minimum of 15 years or any amount above that. However, the death penalty remains mandatory for certain categories of murder that include the killing of a law enforcement official while on duty, prison officers, members of the judiciary and legal officers, witnesses, as well as jurors, while in the execution of their duties. On 28 November 2012, Minister of Human Services and Social Security Jennifer Webster was elected Chairperson of the parliamentary Special Select Committee that will be spearheading national consultations on proposals by the United Nations Human Rights Council for the country to abolish the death penalty, corporal punishment and decriminalise consensual same sex relations. The last execution in Guyana was actually a double-hanging in August 1997, when Mike Archer and Peter Adams were hanged for a fatal robbery attempt.
In 2012, there were 5 new death sentences and by the end of the year 30 people were held under sentence of death, according to Amnesty International. On December 20, 2012, Guyana voted against the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.