quote:

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Amnesty International welcomes yesterday’s landmark decision by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) to abolish the mandatory death sentence for those convicted of murder in the Bahamas. The UK-based JCPC, which is the highest court of appeal for most of the countries in the English-speaking Caribbean region, ruled that the mandatory death sentence is in violation of the Bahamian Constitution.

Previously in the Bahamas anyone found guilty of murder has been automatically sentenced to death. The mandatory death penalty denies the accused involved the opportunity of having the court consider mitigating circumstances in his or her case.

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I take the "mandatory" to mean the death penalty hasn't been abolished altogether.

And astonishingly (to me, anyway), the Bahamas still puts people to death at a considerable rate.

quote:

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The death penalty remains in force in much of the English-speaking Caribbean region. Sixteen people have been executed in the Bahamas since 1973, six in the last ten years. The last execution in the Bahamas took place in January 2000, but death sentences continue to be handed down. Following the fatal stabbing of a prison guard during a prison escape in January this year, there have been public calls for the resumption of executions and the Prime Minister has been reported as saying he supports a return to executions.

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(emphasis added)

This in a country of about 300,000 people.