St Lucia's hanging plans criticised
St Lucia's Centre for Legal Aid and Human Rights has accused the government of acting prematurely after it announced plans to resume hangings on the Island after more than a decade.

The Attorney General's office has said it has activated the procedures for once again carrying out the death penalty.

The authorities hope the measure will help curb a current wave of violent crime on the island.

There are four inmates currently on death row in Castries, but the Centre believes the prisoner who could go to the gallows if the government has its way, is Christopher Remy.

He was sentenced to hang for slitting a taxi driver's throat.

The President of the Legal Aid Centre, Mary Francis, a human rights lawyer, has disputed the government's position that Remy exhausted all his appeals, even though the time has expired for him to take his matter before the Privy Council.

Privy Council

"He can always get leave at the Privy Council level, and put up a good case," she told BBC Caribbean Radio.

She believes the Privy Council will be sympathetic because it is against the death penalty.

"I cannot see how they would close the door on a man like that," Miss Francis said.

The Attorney General, Phillip La Corbiniere, has been expecting legal action to prevent the government from going ahead with executions.

He says the authorities will fight these efforts to stall or reverse the process.

"The normal process will go forward, there will be challenges, we will meet those challenges as they come forward," he said.

The government believes it is on clear legal footing on the matter, and said it intends to ensure that hanging is resumed in St Lucia.

The last execution in St Lucia took place more than a decade ago when convicted killer Solomon Vitalis was hanged for the murder of a Dominican accountant.

The hanging debate evokes equally strong arguments from both pro and anti death penalty activists.

Pro-hanging campaigners insist it is a deterrent to crime while those who want it abolished argue that it is inhumane treatment frowned on and denounced in international treaties.