Privy Council Declares Trinidad & Tobago Mandatory Death Penalty Illegal

On November 20, 2003, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council of the House of Lords, by a majority decision, held the mandatory death penalty imposed on persons convicted of murder in Trinidad and Tobago to be unconstitutional. On July 15, 1999, at the San Fernando Assizes a jury convicted Mr. Balkissoon Roodal of murder. Section 4 of the Offenses Against The Person Act 1925 provides that ?(e)very person convicted of murder shall suffer death as a felon?. The judge imposed what he regarded as a mandatory sentence of death. On April 7, 2000, the Court of Appeal of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago dismissed the Roodal?s appeal against conviction....[more]