Bar Council chief says Privy Council still needed
JUAN McCARTNEY
NG Senior Reporter
thenassauguardian
juan@nasguard.com
President of the Bahamas Bar Association Ruth Bowe-Darville has expressed concern over recent calls for the country to move away from the Privy Council as a final court of appeal in the wake of a controversial ruling on how the death penalty should be applied.
Bowe-Darville said Bahamians who suggest abandoning the Privy Council are “treading in very dangerous water.”
“Criminally, it’s one thing. Civilly, when you’re dealing with financial matters and the economic impact of it, litigants who come before our court, they need that assurance that there is some place of last resort that is independent and seen to be independent,” said Bowe-Darville while appearing as a guest on the Star 106.5 FM program “Jeffrey” on Thursday.
“Litigants who come before us with multi-million-dollar cases and they see us as a great financial center, they need the assurance that the Privy Council is there,” she said.
Last week, the Privy Council quashed the death sentence of murder convict Maxo Tido and ruled that the gruesome murder of 16-year-old Donnell Conover in 2002 did not warrant a death sentence.
When police discovered Conover’s body, her skull was crushed and she was badly burned.
But the Privy Council, while recognizing that it was a dreadful and appalling murder, said it did not fall into the category of worst of the worst.
Tido was sentenced more than five years ago.
Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham announced in the House of Assembly on Monday that the government intends to bring a bill to Parliament before the summer recess to deal with “the question of the imposition of the death penalty in The Bahamas”.
The legislation would outline specific categories of murder.
Bowe-Darville said the government has to address the question of the death penalty through legislation, but has to be careful not to offend members of the international community.
“I think the question of the death penalty needs to be addressed. I think the country is torn by it because we’re in the throes of this crime epidemic as people have labeled it,” she said.
“People believe that the sentence of death and the implementing of the sentence is going to solve the problem — rightly or wrongly.
“The debate is wide open. Whether the passage of legislation will resolve the problem is yet to be seen, but we need to address it, not only for our own national or domestic needs, but the addressing of the death penalty issue also has international implications for us. It also has economic implications for us.”
Bowe-Darville said Bahamians must remember that the country is “a small fish in a very big pond.”
“The wider community out there with whom we interact internationally, they’re not for the death penalty and have long not been,” she said.
“We interact with them for trade; we look to them for funding. And so we have to consider those implications as well. [Certainly the prime minister] would have considered our greater good and he would consider our interaction with the wider world as well when the legislation comes forward.”
Jun 25, 2011
thenassauguardian
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