THE PRIVY Council office in London has admitted that some of the rulings of its Judicial Committee have had the effect of preventing the death penalty from being carried out in some Caribbean islands.
However, the office dismissed suggestions that the Privy Council, which is the final appeal court for several Caribbean nations, has a "doctrinal disposition" against the death penalty.
"The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council neither supports nor is opposed to the death penalty," said a written statement from the office in response to questions posed by The Gleaner earlier this week.
It explained that the Privy Council has given a "generous and purposive construction" to constitutional guarantees of human rights, in line with international practice.
"This has had the effect, in a number of cases, of preventing the death penalty from being carried out," the statement added.
The statement from the Privy Council office comes against the background of moves by the Jamaican Government to introduce legislation to reverse the rulings of the Judicial Commit-tee in several cases involving the death penalty.
Last week, the Cabinet instructed the Chief Parliamentary Counsel to prepare legislation that would bypass recent rulings of the UK-based final court of appeal.
The legislation, which will amend certain entrenched sections of the Constitution will, among other measures, permits the execution of persons who have spent five years or more on death row, as well as preventing condemned persons from using poor prison conditions as a basis for appealing their death sentences.
Allowing the execution of condemned persons, irrespective of the time they have been on death row, will essentially overturn the 1993 Pratt and Morgan ruling. In that case, the Privy Council ruled that it was inhumane to execute persons who have been waiting for the hangman's noose for more than five years.
It also adjudged that the poor conditions that persons endure while in prison could be considered cruel and inhumane treatment, thereby forming the basis to appeal their death sentences.
Attorney-General Senator A.J. Nicholson, Q.C., told journalists that the proposed legislation was necessary because the rulings of the Privy Council had effectively prevented the death penalty from being carried out.
"Without being able to carry out the death penalty in circumstances where the vast majority of Jamaicans are of the view that this should be done, what will happen is that people are likely to take the law in their own hands and jungle justice would ensue," Senator Nicholson said in a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.
The Privy Council office declined to comment on whether it was appropriate for Caribbean Governments to make these constitutional amendments. How-ever, it said the move would in no way affect the integrity of the court and its decisions.
Jamaica is not the only Caribbean country that has railed against the judgments of the Privy Council regarding the death penalty. Barbados, earlier this year introduced legislation reversing the Court's rulings while similar constitutional amendments are now being considered by Belize.
