The Tribune

By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

Sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

ANYONE who thinks adopting the Caribbean Court of Justice as the Bahamas' final court of appeal in order to circumvent the Privy Council's "disciplines" on the death penalty will be "sorely disappointed", according to Attorney General Carl Bethel.

In an interview with the press, Mr Bethel said to date the CCJ has not departed from "anything said by the Privy Council in respect to capital punishment."

Last year while in opposition, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis pledged that if elected, he would hold a referendum on capital punishment “as soon as possible”.

At the time, Dr Minnis said he would immediately seek to amend the Constitution to remove the UK-based Privy Council as the highest court of appeal for murder convicts.

Dr Minnis said in the case of murder convictions, if the trial judge thinks the nature and circumstances of the killing merit the imposition of a death sentence and the Court of Appeal agrees, the sentence should not be appealed to any other court anywhere else in the world.

Last week, Press Secretary Anthony Newbold said he does not know if the Minnis administration has made progress in its plans to allow capital punishment to be resumed in the Bahamas.

After demanding in opposition that the law on capital punishment be enforced, the Minnis administration has, since its election victory in May, done nothing to suggest it has begun movement on the issue.

On Thursday, Mr Bethel said he would not say whether or not the government is working towards removing the Privy Council as the final court of appeal, but said his office is focused on creating an "effective justice system" that will be a deterrent to would be criminals.

"Let me say this, courts are courts and anyone who thought that the Caribbean Court of Justice would become a short cut or a way around the disciplines being imposed by the Privy Council in matters dealing with capital punishment have been somewhat disappointed, in fact sorely disappointed," Mr Bethel said.

"The learned Justices of the Caribbean Court of Justice have not found any reason thus far to justify departure from anything said by the Privy Council in respect to these matters. The real question is though how do we secure a system of justice that is effective and through its effectiveness a source of deterrence to the would be criminal and also a source of comfort to a society. Right now we have a society that is living on the edge because of the fear of crime. Efforts are constantly being made to try and find a way to improve the operations of the system and the administration of justice which continues to be plagued by human and technological problems, but each day we get better."

Mr Bethel said the government is in the process of securing a location for a new court to focus on sexual offences and domestic violence.

"We are looking at a court to address the backlog of cases and old cases that have not yet been brought to trial but also to focus on sexual offences and domestic violence cases," he said.

"So that requires a criminal court, a court capable of accommodating a judge, the registrars and a 12 person jury and possibly a seat for alternates. So with that in mind we do have a very broad timeline that we are hoping to have something in place by the start of the new year but I need to confirm with the Chief Justice with how far along he has gone with that. There are two sites we are looking at. The first one is the eastern lower level court but I don’t think work has begun on that and it is too small for a criminal court, so we would have to do a switch and move a larger courtroom occupied by civil justice over if it comes to that. The other site being looked at that is a site the Saffery Square building, but it as to be reconfigured.”

Although the law allows for capital punishment, the death penalty has not been carried out since January 2000. That year, David Mitchell was executed for stabbing two German tourists to death.

In 2006, the London-based Privy Council ruled that the Bahamas' mandatory death sentence for convicted murderers was unconstitutional.

In 2011, after a ruling from the Privy Council, the Ingraham administration amended the death penalty law to specify the "worst of the worst" murders that would warrant execution.

Under the amended law, a person who kills a police or defence force officer, member of the Departments of Customs or Immigration, judiciary or prison services would be eligible for a death sentence. A person would also be eligible for death once convicted of murdering someone during a rape, robbery, kidnapping or act of terrorism.