Delroy ChuckDelroy Chuck
"THE PRIMARY purpose of the Constitution," the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) opined in the case of Pratt and Morgan, "was to entrench and enhance pre-existing rights and freedoms, not to curtail them. Before independence the law would have protected a Jamaican citizen from being executed after an unconscionable delay, and their Lordships are unwilling to adopt a construction of the Constitution that results in depriving Jamaican citizens of that protection." It is this enhancement and protection of the rights and freedoms of a Jamaican citizen that the Government wants co-operation from the Opposition to overturn.
READ CAREFULLY
Senators A.J. Nicholson and Delano Franklyn should take the opportunity to read carefully, the 1993 JCPC decision in Pratt and Morgan and demonstrate to the country why it should be overturned. Why should the Opposition join the Government to amend our Constitution for the singular purpose of overturning a decision in which the reasoning of the Law Lords is immaculate, impeccable and unimpeachable?
The JCPC interpretation of the Constitution was a powerful signal to the present government to act forthrightly and bring a crumbling justice system to civilised standards of behaviour that will outlaw acts of inhumanity and prevent unconscionable delays. If a justice system cannot execute capital murderers within five years after conviction, what message does it send to the rest of the system in the adjudication of cases and the enforcement of judgments?
In reality, two years would have been a reasonable time for the convicted man to exhaust the appellate process and petitions to human rights organisations, yet the JCPC out of an abundance of caution ruled that five years was ample time, which would also avoid what has now become known in America as 'the death row phenomenon'.
DEATH ROW
It cannot be in the interests of the convicted murderer or of the society that he should languish on death row indefinitely. I simply cannot understand why the Government would want to extend this ghastly process beyond five years during which time the convicted man is actually encouraged to file a multiplicity of appeals, most of which have no hope of success. I do not support the death penalty, but if it is the law and must remain the law, then enforce it swiftly.
How do Senators Nicholson and Franklyn respond to the charge that prolonged and inordinate delays started only in the past 20 or so years? Before and soon after independence, execution of convicted murderers occurred within two years and an efficient and competent government would ensure compliance within that time frame. In earlier times, the death penalty was actually carried out immediately after sentence. In the United Kingdom, before the abolition of the death penalty, execution took place within weeks, and in the cases of appeals to the House of Lords, within months.
It is time we stop institutionalising inefficiency and incompetence, which I charge is what the present government seeks to do. After conviction in capital cases, and especially with modern technology, an appeal can be heard within three months, and the appellate process completed within a year.
PARDON
Immediately, after the appeal is dismissed, the Jamaican Privy Council, advising the Governor General, should consider the case under Sections 90 and 91 of the Constitution, giving the condemned man the opportunity to provide reasons or petitions in support of a pardon. If a pardon is not granted then within six months the warrant for his execution should be issued, which would expedite an application, if thought necessary and appropriate, to the JCPC, which usually dismiss or hear the applications within months.
It is the administrative inefficiency, inordinate delays and plain incompetence that usually give rise to petitions and the multiplicity of appeals, and must be avoided. To keep convicted murderers on death row for prolonged periods, stretching into years perhaps decades, amounts to cruel and inhumane punishment, and Senators Nicholson and Franklyn will not get the support and co-operation of the Opposition. "If capital punishment is to be retained," the JCPC urged, "it must be carried out with all possible expedition."
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Opposition Member of Parliament. He can be
contacted by email at delchuck@hotmail.com.
