PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – The Trinidad and Tobago government yesterday announced plans to introduce new legislation to facilitate the implementation of the death penalty in the country.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar in a statement to Parliament said that her seven-month-old People’s Partnership government had decided to introduce an amendment to the Constitution to facilitate the new initiative by her administration.
There are 42 persons on death row here.
Caribbean countries have complained in the past that rulings by the London-based Privy Council, the final court for some regional countries, have made it much more difficult for carrying out the death penalty on convicted killers.
Prime Minister Persad Bissessar said that the government has incorporated into the new bill a previous law that was passed by Parliament in 2000 “whereby murders were categorized to strike a balance and appreciate the varied circumstances in which a murder can occur.
“We propose to treat with murder in three categories, and not to impose the death penalty in all cases of murder,” she said, adding that the Offences against the Persons Bill had first been tabled by the then people’s National Movement (PNM) government in October 2000 and “unanimously passed without any amendments with the full support of the (then) opposition”.
She told the Parliament that there had been “no real debate on this bill because there was agreement by both parties that it was necessary and proper.
“That law was never however proclaimed. Some legal experts have expressed the view that such a law in any event requires a special majority and would be better housed in the constitution,” she said.
Prime Minister Persad Bissessar said given the past statements by the PNM regarding the implementation of the death penalty, her administration “anticipates the full and unconditional support of the opposition in this matter.
“There is no room for partisan politics when it comes to the fight against crime. Responsible and matured leadership is needed to rescue our nation from this abyss of crime. We proceed on the assumption that the PNM has not changed its position on this critical matter,” she said. (CMC)
