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Fighting for life on death row

PRISONERS ON DEATH row now have a chance to fight for their lives. This has been made possible because of a United Kingdom Privy Council ruling last week that struck down the mandatory death sentence of persons convicted of capital murder.

The ruling means that all persons convicted of capital murder can make mitigation pleas and call evidence to convince the judge why the death sentence should not be passed on them. The ruling gives judges discretion to decide the appropriate sentence. Judges did not have a discretion in regards to sentence in capital murder cases before the ruling because the law made the sentence mandatory.

But some lawyers are not optimistic that the majority of those convicted of capital murder will escape the death sentence. "There are many people, including some judges, who are of the view that some of the prisoners convicted of crimes which fall under non-capital murder should get the death sentence", a lawyer said.

The lawyer said he based his view on the fact that there are judges who have been giving stiff prison sentences for non-capital murder. "There is hardly one sentence in which the judge does not recommend that the prisoner should not be eligible for parole before he has served a minimum of 20 years.

"What does that tell you? It is telling you that the judge is saying that although the person will not be hanged, the crime is so serious that he must spend a long time in prison," the lawyer said.

"The high incidence of crimes of violence in the country must weigh heavily on the minds of the judges when exercising their discretion as to the appropriate sentence and the manner in which the crime was committed," another lawyer said. He, too, feels that very few will escape the death sentence when convicted of capital murder although no one has been hanged since 1988.

Other lawyers shared similar views, that the death row population which now stands at 39 will not be reduced significantly.

The Privy Council was basically saying in the Jamaican case in which it made its ruling on Tuesday, that persons convicted of capital murder should have the same benefits at sentencing like other offenders, and judges have a discretion as to the type of sentence which should be passed on capital murder offenders. The Privy Council has not abolished the death penalty.

In 1992, the Offences against the Person Act, which came into force in 1864, was amended. Prior to the amendment all persons convicted of murder were sentenced to hang. Under the 1992 amendment to the Act there are now two categories of murder. They are capital murder which attracts the death penalty and non-capital murder. The sentence for non-capital murder is life imprisonment but the judge can recommend how many years the prisoner must serve before being eligible for parole.