Privy Council to consider whether execution of intellectually disabled is ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ and unlawful

16/05/16

On 16 and 17 May 2016 the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is hearing appeals against mandatory sentences of death handed down to two men, Lester Pitman and Neil Hernandez, convicted of murder in Trinidad and Tobago. The appeals raise the issue of whether the execution of persons diagnosed with intellectual disability is unlawful as ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ and therefore prohibited by the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago. Paul Bowen QC, instructed by Parvais Jabbar and Saul Lehrfreund of the Death Penalty Project at Simons Muirhead and Burton acts for the two men as part of a team. A link to the story as reported by the Guardian Newspaper can be found here.