INDEX

To celebrate the 11th World Day Against the Death Penalty dedicated to the Greater Caribbean, a regional conference is organised by local civil society in Trinidad and Tobago on October, 1st.

This annual report covers the situation of death penalty cases involving Puerto Ricans who face death penalty proceedings in the federal jurisdiction, as well as in those states of the US where such punishment is strictly upheld, and one case of petition for extradition.

An appeal signed by local organizations and a new report by Amnesty International denounce multiple human rights violations in the use of capital punishment in the region and ask governments to “remove the death penalty once and for all from the law books”.

A two-day conference organised by the Community of Sant’Egidio on the death penalty in the Greater Caribbean took place in Madrid between 17-19 October, highlighting issues of rising crime and international influence in the region.

The Government of the small Caribbean nation has recently introduced a Constitution Amendment Bill, which seeks to make it clear that the death penalty is not unconstitutional.

A bill which aimed to facilitate executions in the Caribbean nation was defeated in Parliament on February 28.

The region has the highest crime rate in the world. Whether it is gratuitous violence, domestic violence, ethnic tensions or drug-related violence, people want solutions faced to the accumulation of crime.

Jamaican lawmakers voted to keep capital punishment and the government seems determined to use it. Caribbean abolitionists are battling similar moves across the region.