PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) - The Trinidad and Tobago government says it will seek to amend existing legislation to make it easier to carry out the death penalty, following the recent High Court ruling that commuted the death sentence of 52 convicted murderers to life imprisonment.

Attorney General Bridgid Annisette-George said that the ruling however "does not affect the death penalty (imposed) from July 8, 2004".

Last weekend, Justice Nolan Bereaux ruled that the group of 49 men and three women be removed immediately from Death Row and instead spend the rest of their lives in jail.

His ruling followed a constitutional motion filed by the convicted murderers more than three years ago challenging their death sentences. The motion covered only those persons convicted before July 7, 2004, when the London-based Privy Council - the country's highest court - ruled that the sentences of everyone on Death Row at that time be commuted to life imprisonment.

The Attorney General said that at least 30 persons remain on Death Row here and that the State is committed to carrying out the death penalty.

But she acknowledged that it is being restrained by the Privy Council's Pratt and Morgan ruling, which gives a five-year limit from the date of conviction to carry out the death penalty.

Annisette-George said that the Patrick Manning-led government would be seeking an amendment to Constitution Amendment Bill 2008 to deal with the existing problem.

"While in the local courts, a lot has been done to make us Pratt and Morgan-compliant, from our analysis of what has been happening, most of the delay takes place between the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council," she said.

"Some of the legislative amendments we are looking at are to affect how Pratt and Morgan apply to us," she said, noting that the government would be seeking the support of the opposition to deal with the amendment.

"As emotional as it is, the government needs to be reasonable (and) rational in the position it adopts. The government's position is [that] the death penalty is the law. We will enforce it in accordance with the law," she added.

Earlier, Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal - who is also an independent Senator here - said that the High Court ruling would provide "more fodder to the cynics and critics, who say that no murderer can or will be executed in Trinidad and Tobago".

Seetahal, a former magistrate, said with the number of murders likely to pass 400 this year, "one wonders how is it that the State has delayed so long in actually commuting the sentences of these convicts".

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