The British Privy Council in London unan­i­mous­ly struck down the impo­si­tion of manda­to­ry death sen­tences in the Bahamas. This land­mark deci­sion held that the law ​“should be con­strued as impos­ing a dis­cre­tionary and not a manda­to­ry sen­tence of death.” The Privy Council rul­ing said that the manda­to­ry death penal­ty should have been regard­ed as inhu­mane and degrad­ing pun­ish­ment as ear­ly as 1973. ​“The ram­i­fi­ca­tions and con­se­quences of the Privy Council’s rul­ing are huge; there are impli­ca­tions for at least 30 pris­on­ers on death row in The Bahamas whose cas­es will now have to be reviewed,” said Saul Lehrfreaund of Simons Muirhead and Burton Solicitors.

The Bahamas has hanged 50 men since 1929, and the nation has a total of 28 men under the sen­tence of death. The Privy Council ordered that the cas­es of two men be sent back to the Supreme Court so that their sen­tences could be recon­sid­ered. The men, Forrester Bowe and Trono Davis, were both sen­tenced to death in the late 1990s, and the Council has long held that it would be inhu­mane to exe­cute any­one who has been under the sen­tence of death for five years or more. ​“It marks a new dawn for human rights in the region and has giv­en hope to all those sen­tenced to death around the world,” stat­ed defense attor­ney Keir Starmer.

(Bahama Journal, March 9, 2006). See International Death Penalty.

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