With murders on the rise in the country, many people have called for the imposition of the death penalty. The country has recorded 85 murders in seven months, just nine short of last year's record-setting murder toll of 94. However, murder convicts are no longer automatically condemned to death in keeping with a 2006 Privy Council decision that said sentences should be judged on the facts of the case.
The Privy Council, the final appellate court for the country, recently determined that the death penalty should be reserved for the 'worst of the worst' cases of murder when it overturned the death sentence imposed on Maxo Tido for the brutal murder of 16-year-old Donell Conover. Tido was the first person sentenced to death after the 2006 decision.
The Nassau Guardian decided to look at the penalties murder convicts have received. This year, four people--one woman--have been sentenced for murder and they have received sentences from 13 years to life imprisonment. A life sentence does not necessarily mean the end of one's existence as the Prerogative of Mercy determines how long a lifer remains in prison.
Sherman Rodriquez was sentenced to 60 years imprisonment for the November 2004 murder of his neighbor Dale Hepburn. Angelo Poitier received a life sentence for the May 27, 2009 murder of his former girlfriend Shenise Adderley. Mark Anthony Capron was sentenced to 50 years for the March 2001 murder of Andrew Simms. Capron was initially convicted on October 17, 2002 and received a mandatory death sentence.
Melba Munroe was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the February 12, 2006 stabbing death of Dean Archer, her mother's abusive boyfriend. Rodriquez, Poitier and Capron were convicted in 2010. Munroe was convicted on June 3. Michael Beckford, Shavargo McPhee, Lavardo Rahming, Durad Munroe and Randolph Brown, who were all convicted of murder this year, are still awaiting sentencing.
According to data released by the Attorney General's Office recently, only four of nine men at Her Majesty's Prison could still face execution. Edwin Bauld Jr., Renaldo Bonaby, Mario Flowers and Wilfred McPhee were all sentenced to death in 2010. Bauld and McPhee were convicted of the October 2007 murder of 28-year-old Police Corporal Edison Bain.
Bonaby was sentenced to death for the December 6, 2006 murder of Philip Gaitor Jr. And Mario Flowers was sentenced to death for the December 29, 2007 murder of Ramos Williams, a policeman who was killed in the line of duty. All of those men have challenged their convictions to the Court of Appeal.
The government has promised to introduce legislation to determine which cases are death eligible. Former Court of Appeal President Dame Joan Sawyer noted the need for sentencing guidelines in murder cases since the landmark decision in 2006.
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