The total is one of the highest death sentence rates in the world, Amnesty International has said. After years without executions in the region, the Bahamas hanged two men last year and St. Kitts and Nevis hanged one man. Throughout the Caribbean, there is a growing clamor for capital punishment to deter violent crime associated with drug-smuggling. People have been forced to live in jails of their own construction, barricading their houses and business places with iron bars, double locks, electronic alarms,'' The Express of Trinidad raged this week. There is also growing impatience with the appeal system used by some Caribbean countries, which relies on the London-based Privy Council as the court of final appeal.
Critics charge that the council of British aristocrats have tried to impede executions.
The council angered Caribbean countries in 1993 when it ruled it was inhumane to execute people who had waited on death row more than 5 years. Hundreds of convicted murderers had their terms commuted to life in prison. In Grenada on Friday, justice ministers from more than a dozen countries completed drafting a plan for a Caribbean court to replace the council. Prison officials explained the executions were staggered because each person must hang from the gallows for an hour to ensure death. Amnesty International on Friday condemned the hanging of three convicted murderers by Trinidad and Tobago, saying it had appealed to the Pope and Nelson Mandela to help stay the executions of six others.