[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 7



BARBADOS:

CCJ to hand down judgement in death penalty case from Barbados


The Caribbean Court of Justice is expected to rule tomorrow on its 1st
death penalty case.

It is the case relating to Jeffrey Joseph and Lennox Boyce whose death
sentences were commuted to life imprisonment by a Barbados High Court.

The Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Appeal (CCJ) will on Wednesday
deliver judgement in its 1st major capital punishment case.

The judgement will be delivered by the seven-member court at 10.a.m
Eastern Caribbean time.

The Barbados government had brought the case before the court in June
after it filed 8 grounds of appeal, arguing that the Court of Appeal in
that country erred in law when it commuted the death sentence of Jeffrey
Joseph and Lennox Boyce to life imprisonment for the murder of 22-year-old
Marquelle Hippolyte.

Death warrants had been read to the 2 convicted men on 2 occasions.

The men had earlier gone to the Appeal Court contending that it was a
breach of their constitutional right to execute them while they were
awaiting a final report from the Inter American Commission for Human
Rights (IACHR).

Lawyers for the convicted men had asked the CCJ, which is the final court
for Barbados, not to overturn the decision by the Court of Appeal that
earlier this year commuted the death sentences of their clients to life
imprisonment.

Queens Counsel Alair Paul Shepherd, leading a 6-member team, had argued
before the seven-member CCJ that the Constitutional Amendment Act 2000
provided convicted persons with a right to petition international bodies
or courts regarding their death sentences.

But Roger Forde, QC, the lead lawyer for the Barbados government, argued
that there is no provision in the Barbados constitution that provides a
basis for its citizens to petition international bodies, such as the
IACHR, with regards to the execution of persons convicted if murder.

Forde had argued that while there was a "legitimate expectation" by the
convicted men to be given an opportunity to petition an international
body, it was not a "legitimate right".

The 2 men had filed their petition before the IACHR on September 3, 2004
and Trinidad-based human rights lawyer, Douglas Mendes urged the court to
adopt the London-based Privy Council ruling regarding 2 cases from Jamaica
and Trinidad and Tobago.

He said the 2 cases - Neville Lewis versus the Jamaica Attorney General in
2000 and the Thomas versus Baptiste of 1999 - gave the right to be heard
before the Mercy Committee as well as preventing the execution of a
convicted persons before the determination of their human rights
petitions.

Mendes said that while he accepted that the CCJ can depart from any ruling
of the Privy Council, "you should treat such a decision in the same way
you treat your own decision."

In the appeal, the Barbados government had also contended that the Court
of Appeal erred on the basis that the convicted men had no "access to
adequate funding to effectively pursue any further rights they may have."

(source: Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation)