Source: https://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/country-search-post.cfm?language=fr&country=Belize
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 03:51:32+00:00

Document:
BBC, Country Profiles: Belize Profile, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18724590, May 21, 2013.
 Amnesty Intl., Death Penalty in the English-Speaking Caribbean: A Human Rights Issue, p. 7, Index: AMR/05/001/2012, Nov. 30, 2012.
 Belize Indictable Procedure Act, s. 153, Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 96, 1958, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Death Penalty Project, Belize Reprieves Last Man on Death Row, http://www.deathpenaltyproject.org/news/2331/belize-reprieves-last-man-on-death-row-update/, Dec. 22, 2015. Death Penalty Project, Behind the Prison Gates: Findings and recommendations from a visit by Joseph Middleton to Belize Central Prison, http://www.deathpenaltyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/14.11.18-DPP-Belize-Report-PRINT-version.pdf, Nov. 18, 2014.
 Amnesty Intl., Death Sentences and Executions in 2015, ACT 50/3487/2016, Apr. 6, 2016. Amnesty Intl., Death Sentences and Executions in 2014, ACT 50/001/2015, Mar. 31, 2015. Amnesty Intl., Death Sentences and Executions in 2013, ACT 50/001/2014, Mar. 26, 2014. Amnesty Intl., Death Sentences and Executions in 2012, ACT 50/001/2012, Apr. 9, 2013. Amnesty Intl., Death Penalty in the English-Speaking Caribbean: A Human Rights Issue, p. 7, Index: AMR/05/001/2012, Nov. 30, 2012.
 Capital punishment in the British Commonwealth, Capital Punishment UK, http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/common.html, last accessed Sep. 19, 2013.
Where a member of the military commits the civil offense of treason outside Belize and is convicted by a court martial, he is liable to suffer death.  Members of the military may also be sentenced to death for a number of treasonous offenses committed while carrying out their military duties (see section on Military Offenses Not Involving Death).
There is no mandatory death penalty in Belize (see question on mandatory death penalty above).
A defendant is deemed to have been “insane” and is exempt from criminal liability “if he was prevented by reason of idiocy, imbecility or any mental derangement or disease affecting the mind, from knowing the nature or consequences of the act in respect of which he is accused.”  The Criminal Code provides specifically for diminished responsibility in cases of murder. If a defendant who is party to a killing can show that he suffered from such “abnormality of mind” due to “arrested or retarded development or any inherent causes or caused by disease or injury,” as “substantially impaired his mental responsibility for his acts,” he cannot be sentenced to death for murder.  In other words, individuals with severe intellectual disabilities may be excused from criminal liability if their disabilities are proven to “cause” their criminal behavior. Where a direct causal relationship is not proven, however, we found no law that provides that such individuals shall not be sentenced to death.
A defendant is deemed to have been “insane” and is exempt from criminal liability “if he was prevented by reason of idiocy, imbecility or any mental derangement or disease affecting the mind, from knowing the nature or consequences of the act in respect of which he is accused.”  A defendant is also deemed insane if he acted “under the influence of a delusion of such a nature as to render him, in the opinion of the jury, an unfit subject for punishment of any kind.”  The Criminal Code specifically provides for diminished responsibility in cases of murder. If a defendant who is party to a killing can show that he suffered from such “abnormality of mind” due to “arrested or retarded development or any inherent causes or caused by disease or injury,” as “substantially impaired his mental responsibility for his acts,” he cannot be sentenced to death for murder.  However, we found no law indicating that individuals who develop a severe mental illness after they are convicted and sentenced to death are ineligible for execution.
 Belize Criminal Code, ss. 108(3)(a-f), Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 101, Oct. 1, 1981, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Belize Criminal Code, s. 117, Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 101, Oct. 1, 1981, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Belize Criminal Code, s. 106(1), Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 101, Oct. 1, 1981, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Belize Criminal Code, ss. 108(3), Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 101, Oct. 1, 1981, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Belize Defence Act, Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 135, art. 67(3)(a), Jan. 1, 1978, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Belize Defence Act, Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 135, arts. 30(1), 30(2)(a), 30(3)(a), Jan. 1, 1978, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Belize Defence Act, Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 135, art. 31, Jan. 1, 1978, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Belize Defence Act, Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 135, art. 32, Jan. 1, 1978, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Belize Defence Act, Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 135, arts. 36, 37, Jan. 1, 1978, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Belize Genocide Act, ss. 2(1), 2(3)(a), Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 110, Apr. 5, 1971, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Reyes v. The Queen, para. 43, Appeal No. 64 of 2001, Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Mar. 11, 2002.
 Belize Criminal Code, ss. 106(1), (3), Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 101, Oct. 1, 1981, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Pipersburgh v. The Queen, para. 33, Appeal No. 96 of 2006, Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Feb. 21, 2008.
 Belize Indictable Procedure Act, s. 146(2), Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 101, Oct. 1, 1981, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000..
 U.N. Treaty Collection, Convention on the Rights of the Child, http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?mtdsg_no=IV-11&chapter=4〈=en, Sep. 19, 2013.
 U.N., Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 37(a), G.A. Res. 44/25, Nov. 20, 1989.
 Belize Indictable Procedure Act, s. 147(1), Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 101, Oct. 1, 1981, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Belize Criminal Code, s. 26(a), Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 101, Oct. 1, 1981, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Belize Criminal Code, s. 118, Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 101, Oct. 1, 1981, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Belize Criminal Code, s. 26(b), Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 101, Oct. 1, 1981, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Status, Declarations, Reservations, Denunciations, Withdrawals, B-32: Amer. Conv. on Human Rights, Pact of San Jose, Costa Rica, Nov. 22, 1969, http://cidh.oas.org/basicos/english/basic4.amer.conv.ratif.htm, last accessed Aug. 27, 2013.
 Status, Declarations, Reservations, Denunciations, Withdrawals, A-53: Prot. to the Amer. Conv. on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty, Jun. 8, 1990, http://cidh.oas.org/basicos/english/basic8.death%20penalty%20ratif.htm, last accessed Aug. 27, 2013.
 Status, Declarations, Reservations, Denunciations, Withdrawals, A-53: Prot. to the Amer. Conv. on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty, Jun. 8, 1990, http://cidh.oas.org/basicos/english/basic8.death%20penalty%20ratif.htm, last accessed Mar. 24, 2010.
The most significant recent changes involve the extent of court discretion during sentencing when defendants face capital charges. In 2002, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ruled in Reyes v. The Queen that the mandatory death penalty is inhuman and thus unconstitutional in Belize and that courts must consider mitigating circumstances in all cases of murder.  In 2007, the JCPC held in Pipersburgh v. The Queen that Belize’s subsequent practice of placing the burden on defendants to prove why they should not be executed is inhuman and thus unconstitutional, and ruled that the prosecution must rebut any presumption of mitigating factors and show why the murder was the “most exceptional and extreme” sort.  These decisions limit the death penalty vastly from its ambit prior to 2002.
Following a constitutional amendment, the Caribbean Court of Justice replaced the JCPC as the court of final appeal for Belize on June 1, 2010,  a move which one might think would impair the application of Reyes and Pratt and their progeny. However, in limiting application of Pratt in other jurisdictions, the CCJ has not questioned its legal validity (although it has indicated that it might allow more than 5 years for an appeals process prior to commuting death sentences)—rather, it has concentrated on constitutional limitations on human rights-based challenges to death sentences.  In Belize, a limited savings clause that would have prevented such challenges expired long ago in 1986,  and the 2009 Amendment to the Constitution explicitly enables fundamental rights-based challenges as of right to the CCJ.  Furthermore, the Belize Supreme Court has already adopted Pratt as constitutional principle and under its own doctrine of stare decisis cannot easily now depart from Pratt, so the CCJ may be unlikely to depart from the ruling.  Limitation of Reyes and Pipersburgh is similarly unlikely.
While many commonwealth Caribbean countries use “savings clauses” to prevent constitutional review of existing laws and punishments, the limited savings clause in Belize’s Constitution expired in 1986.  Savings clauses in most commonwealth Caribbean countries preserve the authority of laws “obtained at the time of independence” or sometimes the penalties legally administered before independence.  Such clauses effectively bar all legal challenges to the death penalty.
On June 1, 2010, Belize replaced the JCPC with the Caribbean Court of Justice as the court of final appeal,  so future decisions related to the death penalty will emanate from the CCJ instead of the JCPC.
The website of the Judiciary of Belize provides access to selected Supreme Court criminal judgments since 1977 at http://www.belizejudiciary.org/web/judgements2. A comprehensive collection of Court of Appeal judgments on criminal appeals since 1977 are available on the same website at: http://www.belizejudiciary.org/web/judgements3. The Caribbean Court of Justice, the final court of appeal for Belize since June 2010, provides case summaries and judgments on its website at: http://www.caribbeancourtofjustice.org/judgments-proceedings/appellate-jurisdiction-judgments. You can search the collection using keyword searches. Prior to May 31, 2010, the ultimate appellate court was the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. All of the Privy Council’s judgments issued after July 2009 can be found on its website at http://www.jcpc.gov.uk/decided-cases/index.html. Earlier Privy Council judgments can be found on BAILII at http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKPC. The Privy Council Papers website provides detailed case records for all appeals considered by the JCPC between 1792 and 1998: http://www.privycouncilpapers.org.
 Belize Constitution Act, art. 3(a), Sep. 21, 1981, as in force on Mar. 1, 2012.
 Belize Constitution Act, art. 4(1), Sep. 21, 1981, as in force on Mar. 1, 2012.
 Belize Constitution Act, art. 7, Sep. 21, 1981, as in force on Mar. 1, 2012.
 Belize Constitution Act, art. 53(e), Sep. 21, 1981, as in force on Mar. 1, 2012.
 Belize Constitution Act, arts. 58(1)(d), 59(3)(a), 63(1)(e), 64(3)(a), Sep. 21, 1981, as in force on Mar. 1, 2012.
 Belize Constitution Act, Preamble, Sep. 21, 1981, as in force on Mar. 1, 2012.
 Reyes v. The Queen, para. 43, Appeal No. 64 of 2001, Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Mar. 11, 2002. This decision was affirmed in Pipersburgh v. The Queen, Appeal No. 96 of 2006, Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Feb. 21, 2008.
 Pratt and Morgan v. Attorney General of Jamaica, pp. 26-27, Appeal No. 10 of 1993, Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Nov. 2, 1993.
 Mejia v. Attorney General, Action No. 296 of 2000, Supreme Court of Belize, Jun. 11, 2001. Adele Ramos, Kolbe Death Row Inmate, 26, Shot Dead—Two Cons Detained!, Amandala Newspaper, http://amandala.com.bz/news/kolbe-death-row-inmate-26-shot-dead-two-cons-detained, Nov. 2, 2007..
 Attorney General v. Boyce, paras. 49, 66, Appeal No. CV 2 of 2005, Caribbean Court of Justice, Jun. 21, 2006.
 Belize Constitution Act, art. 53(e), Sep. 21, 1981, as in force on Mar. 1, 2012. Belize Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 2009. Adele Ramos, Belize Senate Approves Caribbean Court of Justice, Amandala, http://www.amandala.com.bz/index.php?id=9589, Feb. 26, 2010.
 Belize Constitution Act, art. 21, Sep. 21, 1981, as in force on Mar. 1, 2012. Roger Hood &Carolyn Hoyle, The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective, p. 104, Oxford University Press, 4th ed., 2008. Edward Fitzgerald QC, ALBA Seminar on the Privy Council: Death Penalty, pp. 5-6, http://adminlaw.org.uk/library/publications.php, Jun. 30, 2009.
 Belize Constitution Act, art. 104(1)(e), Sep. 21, 1981, as in force on Mar. 1, 2012. Belize Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 2009.
 Mejia v. Attorney General, Action No. 296 of 2000, Supreme Court of Belize, Jun. 11, 2001.
 Amnesty Intl., Amnesty Intl., Death Penalty in the English-Speaking Caribbean: A Human Rights Issue, p. 25, Index: AMR/05/001/2012, Nov. 30, 2012.
 Amnesty Intl., Death Penalty in the English-Speaking Caribbean: A Human Rights Issue, p. 4, Index: AMR/05/001/2012, Nov. 30, 2012.
 U.N.G.A., 67th Session, 60th Plenary Meeting, pp. 16-17, U.N. Doc. A/67/PV.60, Dec. 20, 2012. U.N.G.A., 65th Session, 71st Plenary Meeting, pp. 18-19, U.N. Doc. A/65/PV.71, Dec. 21, 2010. U.N.G.A., 63rd Session, 70th Plenary Meeting, pp. 16-17, U.N. Doc. A/63/PV.70, Dec. 18, 2008. U.N.G.A., 62nd Session, 76th Plenary Meeting, pp. 16-17, U.N. Doc. A/62/PV.76, Dec. 18, 2007.
 Mejia v. Attorney General, Action No. 296 of 2000, Supreme Court of Belize, Jun. 11, 2001 (adopting Pratt and Morgan v. Attorney General of Jamaica, pp. 26-27, Appeal No. 10 of 1993, Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Nov. 2, 1993). Adele Ramos, 1,420 Prisoners in 1,500-Max Kolbe, Amandala Newspaper, http://amandala.com.bz/news/1420-prisoners-in-1500-max-kolbe, Aug. 11, 2009. Amandala Newspaper, No-one on death row in Belize, http://amandala.com.bz/news/?p=259932&upm_export=pdf, Apr. 12, 2011.
 Pipersburgh v. The Queen, para. 33, Appeal No. 96 of 2006, Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Feb. 21, 2008..
 Edward Fitzgerald, Savings clauses and the colonial death penalty regime, pp. 119-121, Penal Reform International, http://www.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/rep-2000-caribbean-human-rights-en_0.pdf, in Penal Reform Inernational, Commonwealth Caribbean Human Rights Seminar, Sep. 2000.
 Belize Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 2009. Adele Ramos, Belize Senate Approves Caribbean Court of Justice, Amandala Newspaper, http://amandala.com.bz/news/belize-senate-approves-caribbean-court-of-justice, Feb. 26, 2010.
 Belize Constitution Act, art. 53, Sep. 21, 1981, as in force on Mar. 1, 2012.
 Belize Constitution Act, arts. 52, 54, Sep. 21, 1981, as in force on Mar. 1, 2012.
 Belize Juries Act, s. 21(1), Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 128, Jan. 9, 1971, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.. Belize Criminal Code, s. 106, Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 101, Oct. 1, 1981, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000. U.N.G.A. Human Rights Council, National Report Submitted in Accordance with paragraph 15(a) of the Annex to Human Rights Council Resolution 5/1: Belize, para. 17, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/WG.6/5/BLZ/1, Feb. 18, 2009.
 Belize Criminal Code, s. 106, Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 101, Oct. 1, 1981, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 U.S. State Dept., 2012 Human Rights Reports : Belize, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2012/wha/204428.htm, Apr. 19, 2013.
 U.N.G.A. Human Rights Council, National Report Submitted in Accordance with paragraph 15(a) of the Annex to Human Rights Council Resolution 5/1: Belize, para. 17, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/WG.6/5/BLZ/1, Feb. 18, 2009.
 Belize Court of Appeal Act, sec. 23, ch. 90, Dec. 31, 2000.
Belize’s one prison, the Belize Central Prison, is run by the Kolbe Foundation, a private non-profit organization founded by Rotary Club members in 2002 to reform the penitentiary system with a focus on humane facilities and rehabilitation.  The government retains oversight and monitoring responsibility.  Prison conditions have improved significantly since the Kolbe Foundation assumed responsibility for prison operations. The Foundation initiated rehabilitation and education programs and overhauled staff training to improve security, improve inmate treatment and end corruption. While the prison used to suffer from overcrowding and prison guard brutality,  there have been no recent reports of abuse or excessive use of force, and the total prison population is now below the institution’s capacity.  The normal prison population is housed in cells that accommodate 4 to 6 people. Pre-trial detainees and convicted prisoners, juveniles and adults, and men and women are held in separate facilities. Maximum-security prisoners also seem to be held apart from the general prison population; when they are housed in the remand section, they are held in individual cells. Inmates have access to potable water, daily visits and on-site medical care, and religious observance is permitted. Inmates can lodge complaints with the Ombudsman’s office, reportedly without censorship. Conditions in the women’s section are much better than in the rest of the prison. Nevertheless, the prison reportedly fails to meet all international standards.  Furthermore, the Belize Public Health Authorities released a report, highlighting unsanitary kitchen facilities and female holding cells. Prison authorities promised to take corrective action.  We found no specific information on the prison conditions of death-sentenced prisoners.
We believe that no one is currently held under sentence of death.  Our research did not uncover any information about the composition of death row in recent years.
 Kolbe Foundation, Location, http://kolbe.bz/about-kolbe/location, last accessed Oct. 3, 2013.
 Kolbe Foundation, History and Vision, http://kolbe.bz/about-kolbe/history-and-vision, last accessed Oct. 3, 2013.
 U.S. Dept. of State, 2012 Human Rights Report: Belize, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2012/wha/204428.htm, Apr. 19, 2013.
 U.S. Dept. of State, 2009 Human Rights Report: Belize, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/wha/136101.htm, Mar. 11, 2010.
 Adele Ramos, Kobe Prison Health Situation Horrible, Amandala Newspaper, July 19, 2013.
 Amnesty Intl., Death Penalty in the English-Speaking Caribbean: A Human Rights Issue, p. 7, Index: AMR/05/001/2012, Nov. 30, 2012. Pratt and Morgan v. Attorney General of Jamaica, pp. 26-27, Appeal No. 10 of 1993, Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Nov. 2, 1993. Mejia v. Attorney General, Action No. 296 of 2000, Supreme Court of Belize, Jun. 11, 2001.
 Adele Ramos, Nora Parham’s Relatives Want More Answers, Amandala Newspaper, http://amandala.com.bz/news/nora-parhams-relatives-want-more-answers/, Sep. 4, 2009.
 Adele Ramos, Kolbe Death Row Inmate, 26, Shot Dead—Two Cons Detained!, Amandala Newspaper, http://amandala.com.bz/news/kolbe-death-row-inmate-26-shot-dead-two-cons-detained, Nov. 2, 2007.
 Belize Indictable Procedure Act, s. 146(2), Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 101, Oct. 1, 1981, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Adele Ramos, Kolbe Death Row Inmate, 26, Shot Dead—Two Cons Detained!, Amandala Newspaper, http://amandala.com.bz/news/kolbe-death-row-inmate-26-shot-dead-two-cons-detained, Nov. 2, 2007. We were unable to locate the Privy Council decisions relating to Gilroy Wade.
 Amnesty Intl., Execution of Juveniles Since 1990, http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty/executions-of-child-offenders-since-1990, last accessed Oct. 3, 2013.
 Belize Indictable Procedure Act, s. 194, Revised Laws of Belize 2000 Ch. 96, 1958, as updated through to Dec. 31, 2000.
 Belize Attorney General’s Ministry, Belize: Consultation Paper on Criminal Justice Reform, pp. 3-4, http://www.belizelaw.org/web/e_library/WPOCJ_REFORM.pdf, Aug. 5, 2005.
 Court of Appeal Act of Belize, sec. 39, ch. 90, Dec. 31, 2000.
Because Belize is not a party to the Optional Protocol,  the Human Rights Committee does not issue decisions on petitions by individuals.
 ICCPR Human Rights Committee, Concluding Observations on Belize in the absence of a report: Advance unedited version, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/BLZ/CO/1, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/countries/LACRegion/Pages/BZIndex.aspx, 2013.
 Status, Declarations, and Reservations, Optional Prot. to the ICCPR, 999 U.N.T.S. 171, Dec. 16, 1966, http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-5&chapter=4〈=en, last accessed Aug. 23, 2013.
 Universal Periodic Review Media Brief –Belize, UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/Highlights28October2013pm.aspx, last accessed Dec. 12, 2013.
 U.N.G.A. Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Belize, para. 68(1), U.N. Doc. A/HRC/12/4, Jun. 4, 2009.
 U.N.G.A. Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Belize: Addendum, para. 6, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/12/4/Add.1, Sep. 18, 2009.
 U.N.G.A. Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Belize: Addendum, para. 3, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/12/4/Add.1, Sep. 18, 2009.

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