The death penalty can be carried out in T&T, but the Government has to take the appropriate action and demonstrate the political will to have it done, Senior Counsel Peter Pursglove has said.
Pursglove was the legal consultant to former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj charged with responsibility for implementing the death penalty in this country.
He is currently a legal consultant for the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation.
In 1999, when Maharaj was this country's attorney general crime boss Dole Chadee and his gang, as well as convicted killer Anthony Briggs, were hanged.
Briggs, who was executed on July 28, 1999, was the last person to be hanged in this country.
"As the former head of the Case Management Unit responsible for ensuring that the lawful penalty for murder was implemented, I feel it is my duty to inform members of the public and the Government of the facts concerning the implementation of the death penalty so that decisions about the death penalty may be made in the public interest," Pursglove stated.
With more than 60 people being killed for the year already, there have been renewed calls for the reimplementation of the death penalty as a punishment for murder.
"There is no merit to the excuse that since 2001, after former Attorney General Mr Maharaj demitted office, the failure of governments to implement the death penalty is all the fault of the Privy Council and the International Human Rights Bodies," Pursglove said.
Pursglove said it is wrong for the Inter-American Commission and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to be singled out for "particular blame".
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights no longer has any jurisdiction over cases from T&T, Pursglove said.
"In the circumstances, it is important for the country to be informed as to what successive governments have done since 2001 to carry out the death penalty because it is not true to represent to the public that the appeal processes before the Privy Council and the Human Rights Bodies frustrated the carrying out of the death penalty. The facts show that the death penalty was carried out before 2001 and that the death penalty could be carried out today," Pursglove said.
"The Privy Council in Pratt v Morgan and the Caribbean Court of Justice in later rulings simply laid down the general rule that the death penalty should be implemented within five years of conviction. Bearing that rule in mind, attorney general Maharaj established a Case Management Unit headed by me to put systems in place to carry out the death penalty. That Case Management Unit monitored all murder cases before the Magistrates' Court, the High Court, the Court of Appeal, the Privy Council, and the International Human Rights Bodies. The facts show that Dole Chadee, his eight co-accused, and Anthony Briggs all used the appeal processes in an attempt to frustrate the carrying out of the death penalty. The work done by the Case Management Unit ensured that they were not permitted to do so," he said.