CAPITAL PUNISHMENT BRIEFING PAPER - University of Westminster

natural life imprisonment with hard labour – subjected offenders to a ‘livingtomb’ and was therefore ‘far more cruel in reality’. 89 Mills speech apparentlyrocked the death penalty abolition movement to such an extent that it did notrecover for many years. 90In Trinidad and Tobago, as a result of several Privy Councildecisions 91 , a number of death row inmates have had their death sentencescommuted to a prison term of seventy-five years or natural life with hardlabour. 92 It has frequently been reported that many inmates would, however,prefer the death penalty given that the alternative is spending the rest of theirlife in prison, often in harsh conditions. 93 Some have argued that the severityof a natural life sentence and the quality of life in prison has as strong adeterrent effect as the death penalty, if not stronger. 94The severity of life without parole is perhaps recognised in thedecisions of some states not to extradite offenders to countries where theymight be subjected to a whole life tariff. Uruguay refused to extradite asuspected terrorist following his part in the 1997 attack at a temple in Luxorunless Egypt guaranteed that he would not receive the death penalty or anatural life sentence. 95 Mexico too has in the past refused to extraditesuspects to the USA without securing an undertaking that neither the deathpenalty nor whole life sentences will be imposed. Regrettably, Mexico’sSupreme Court has recently overturned this policy. 968990919293949596Mill, J. S. (1986). Speech in Favour of Capital Punishment. In P. Singer (Ed.), Applied Ethics(p. 98-103). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Radzinowicz, L. and Hood, R. (1986), A History of English Criminal Law andits Administration from 1750, Vol. 5 (London: Stevens and Sons) cited invan Zyl Smit, D. (2002), Taking Life Imprisonment Seriously in National andInternational Law (The Hague: Kluwer Law International).For example, Earl Pratt and Evan Morgan v The Attorney General for Jamaica and TheSuperintendent of Prisons, Saint Catherine’s Jamaica [1993] UKPC 10; Balkissoon Roodal vThe State of Trinidad and Tobago [2003] UKPC 18; Charles Mathews v The State of Trinidadand Tobago, [2004] UKPC 12.The actual meaning of a life sentence in Trinidad and Tobago however remains largelyundefined in the statute books. See Cook (2004, 59-60). Although it is a discretionarysentence, 75 years or natural life with hard labour has emerged as the norm particularly forthose whose death sentence has been commuted to life. There is currently a constitutionalmotion scheduled to be heard in 2008 on the meaning of a life sentence, following theMatthews decision. See Holland and Chidgey (2007, 117) and Charan and Swamber (2007).Ní Ghrálaigh, B. (2005). CCPS Internship Reports 2005. Centre for Capital PunishmentStudies; Black, K. (2005), CCPS Internship Reports 2005, Centre forCapital Punishment Studies; Choudhury, N. (2005), CCPS Internship Reports 2005. Centrefor Capital Punishment Studies; West, F. (2006), CCPS Internship Reports 2006. Centre forCapital Punishment Studies.Katz, L., Levitt, S. D. and Shustorovich, E. (2003), ‘Prison Conditions, CapitalPunishment, and Deterrence’, 5:2 American Law and Economics Review 2003,318–343.US Department of State (2004), ‘Patterns of Global Terrorism – 2003’, Office ofthe Coordinator for Counterterrorism, 29 April 2004. http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/report/2004/pgt_2003/pgt_2003_31640pf.htmBBC News. (30th November 2005). Mexico Alters Extradition Rules. Available fromhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/Americas/4483746.stm25