Referendum on removal of death penalty still on Govt.’s agenda

Jan 31, 2020 News

Several international organisations have been calling on Guyana to abolish the penalty of death by hanging. But the government is not in a haste to do so as it wants its citizens to have a say.

Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland

In fact, in its report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Government indicated its willingness to have a referendum or other consultative processes to ascertain the will of its citizens on the issue.
This was reported to the United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) 35th session, which commenced on January 20 and concludes today in Geneva, Switzerland. Guyana is among several countries being reviewed for its human rights practices by the body.
Guyana’s first and second UPR reviews were done in May 2010 and in January 2015.
At the ongoing review session, many nations including the United Kingdom and Australia, called on Guyana to scrap the death penalty from its laws. Ambassador John Deep Ford, Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, in response said that among other things, Guyana is committed to honouring its international obligations, and has committed to engage in a participatory process.
By Resolution No. 23 of 2012, the National Assembly constituted a Parliamentary Select Committee tasked with engaging stakeholders relative to the death penalty. It was confirmed that this issue remains of particular concern for the majority of Guyanese. The death penalty is provided for under Section 100 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act which reads: Everyone who commits murder shall be guilty of a felony and liable to death as a felon.”
When interpreted, this section has limited scope, in that it eliminates the mandatory death penalty for murder, which existed prior to amendments to the Act in 2010.
In fact, in a judgment dated December 17, 2012, in the case of the State vs Dwayne Jordan, who was convicted of murder, High Court judge, Navindra Singh, held that the discretion regarding imposing the death sentence resides with the Judge. The Judge held that such a sentence should be reserved for murders that are of a seriously depraved and heinous character, which would, of course, be determined based on the evidence of the case and any sensible and realistic mitigation plea by the convicted person.
Section 100(1)(a) –(e) of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act, says a death sentence may only be imposed where a person is convicted for the murder of a member of the security forces, a prison officer, a judicial officer acting in execution of his duties, or where the murder is directly attributable to a person’s status either as a witness of party in a pending or concluded criminal or civil case.
Guyana in its report to the United Nations said that the aforementioned Section confirms that the arbiter of law in relevant cases has the option to impose a sentence of imprisonment for life rather than impose a death sentence.
According to the report, “Notwithstanding the legality of the imposition of a death sentence in the limited circumstances above, in reality, the courts are loathed to impose such a sentence and the state is even less willing to carry out executions. The most telling evidence in support of the former position is the absence of any executions pursuant to a sentence of death since 1997.”
Michael Archer and Peter Adams, who were both found guilty of murder, were the last people to be hanged in Guyana in August 1997.
MORATORIUM
President David Granger, himself, has said that he has no intention of taking anyone’s life. The President has maintained that there is a strict moratorium on the application of the death penalty. There were 26 people known to be under the sentence of death at the end of 2018. During the year, two women were issued death sentences and two sentences were commuted.
The Death Penalty Project reported that as of November 2018, there were 17 people on death row. This number has increased by one. On December 18, 2019, Berbice resident, 29-year-old Imran Ramsaywack, was sentenced to death by hanging for the March 2015 murder of US-based Guyanese trader, Samantha Benjamin.
The woman’s dismembered body was found along the Buxton, East Coast Demerara foreshore. Many prisoners who were on death row have had their death sentence commuted to life by the Court of Appeal. Last year, murder convicts, Elmo Benedict and Dave Banwarie had their death sentence commuted to 25 years’ imprisonment by the Court of Appeal.
Also that year, Dwayne Jordan who was found guilty of the 2007 murder of his reputed wife had his death sentence commuted to 30 years’ imprisonment. In 2017, Mark Royden Williams called “Smallie” and Dennis Williams called “Anaconda” were both sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead for their involvement in the 2008 Bartica massacre in which 12 persons were murdered in cold blood.
Then in January 2013, Chief Justice Ian Chang spared four death row inmates from hanging. The former Chief Justice granted an application for the commutation of the sentences of Ganga Deolall, Terrence Sahadeo, and brothers Kornel and Daniel Vaux, who had been on death row for two decades.
The murder convicts had their sentence commuted to life in light of the amount of time they had spent on death row in keeping with the provisions of Article 141(1) of Guyana’s Constitution, which states that, “No person shall be subjected to torture or to inhumane or degrading punishment or other treatment.”.