Europe urges Trinidad and Tobago to abolish death penalty
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Europe on Tuesday urged Trinidad and Tobago to follow other Commonwealth Caribbean countries and do away with a mandatory death penalty.
“We don’t think that’s the right answer. That’s not for us to tell you what to do. It’s your country and you can run it as you wish. And we can well understand the public pressures there may be, the political pressures there may be, people calling in, in the face of crime, for the death penalty to be carried out,” the United Kingdom Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, Tim Stew, told a news conference.
Flanked by his counterparts from France, Spain, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Germany, the British diplomat said “we don’t think it is effective.
“There is too much evidence to show that a mandatory death penalty is not an effective deterrent to crime,” he added.
The news conference was held ahead of Wednesday’s recognition of Europe Day and Stew said “in fact, we think it’s worse than that.
“There is evidence which shows that when a jury knows that they are facing somebody and have to decide if they are not guilty on a murder case, when they know that the only penalty available to a judge is the death penalty, they are less inclined to find that person guilty and more inclined to let that person walk out of that court, even though they may have done what they are alleged to have done.
“Whereas, if juries know there are range of options available to a judge, from heavy sentencing to lighter sentencing, depending on the terms and circumstances, then they are more inclined to see that justice is done,” he added.
The European Union Delegation to Trinidad and Tobago said it does not believe the death penalty is an effective deterrent to crime and expressed concerns about the country’s high crime rate, gang and drug activity and the significant number of guns on the nation’s streets.
However, it insisted that the death penalty was not “the right answer”.
The diplomats shared their views on a number of issues, including human rights, trade with Trinidad and Tobago, climate change, culture and its role in the world.
Europe Day is the name of an annual observance by the European Union (EU), being held today. It is also known as Schuman Day, in commemoration of the 1950 Schuman Declaration.
It is the EU’s “equivalent of a national day” and its observance is strongly associated with the display of the EU’s equivalent of a national flag, the “European flag or emblem”.
