Capital Punishment - The View of International and National Courts :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Capital Punishment and International and National Courts   almost the world we travel in this paper, which reviews the attitude of courts worldwide regarding the death penalty.   By way of worldwide courts, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC), in a judgement which may have far-reaching consequences on death penalty cases in the English-speaking Caribbean, commuted the death sentences of six convicted captives in Jamaica on 12 September. The JCPC which serves as the final appeal court for English-speaking Caribbean countries much(prenominal) as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the Bahamas, govern that it is unlawful to execute prison houseers whose appeals be pending earlier international bodies such as the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee.   The JCPC also ruled that the Jamaican Privy Council (Mercy Committee) when considering whether to exercise the prerogative of mercy, must provide prisoners wi th an effective and seemly opportunity to participate in the mercy process, including notification of the date on which the Mercy Committee will consider the case and the opportunity to organise informed representations to the Committee and to challenge any inaccurate information before it. This judgement overrules previous decisions of the JCPC and other Caribbean courts, including the 1996 decision from the Bahamas, in which the JCPC had held that a condemned prisoner had no seriouss before the Mercy Committee.   The International Court of Justice (ICJ) held overt hearings in the LaGrand case (Germany v the USA) from 13 - 17 November in The Hague. For the archetypical time in its history, the ICJ has been asked to determine what remedies are required under international law when arrested foreign nationals are not informed of their consular rights and are then sentenced to death.   German nationals Karl and Walter LaGrand were sentenced to death in Arizona, USA, for ki lling a cant manager during a robbery in 1982. Although the local authorities were aware(predicate) of their nationality, the two brothers were arrested, tried and sentenced to death without being advised of their right to consular notification and assistance, as required under Article 36 of the capital of Austria Convention on Consular Relations. Germany maintains that the treaty violation contributed to the death sentences by preventing consular assistance in the gathering of mitigating evidence for presentation at the sentencing stage of the trial. German consular officers only became aware of the case 10 years after the trial when they were contacted by the LaGrands, who had finally learned of their right to consular assistance, not from the Arizona authorities but from other prison inmates.