GOVERNMENT has appointed several persons to serve on the Prerogative of Mercy Advisory Committee, said Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman on Wednesday. At a post cabinet press briefing held at the Ministry of the Presidency, Trotman told the media that the Advisory Council which is statutorily appointed provides guidance to the President on the implementation of capital punishment.
The life of the previous Council he said came to an end on June 30, 2015. “Cabinet has agreed to the reconstitution of the Prerogative of Mercy Board and the appointment of members of its Advisory Council,” said Trotman.
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams will chair the Advisory Council and its other members are: Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan, Major Melissa Stuart, Commanding Officer of the Legal Services Division of the Guyana Defence Force, Attorney Chandrawattie Persaud, Journalist Bert Wilkinson, Medical Practitioner Surendra Singh, and a representative of the Ministry of State. Treaty Officer, Ministry of Public Security Hermilla Gladstone, will serve as Secretary to the Council.
The Council members will serve for a period of three years commencing February 1, 2016 and ending January 2019. Under Article 188 1 (A) of the Constitution of Guyana, the President has the power to grant any person concerned in, or convicted of, any offence under the laws of Guyana, a pardon, either free or subject to lawful condition.
The President may also grant to any person a respite, either indefinite, or for a specified period, of the execution of any punishment imposed on that person for such an office. He may also substitute a less severe form of punishment for any punishment imposed on any person for such an offence or remit the whole or part of any punishment imposed on any person for such an offence or of any penalty or forfeiture otherwise due to the State on account of such an offence.
Article 189 (1) of the Constitution makes provision for the establishment of an Advisory Council on the Prerogative of Mercy, which shall consist of the Attorney General who is to be chairman, along with not less than three and not more than five other persons who shall be appointed by the President and of whom one shall be a person who is a qualified medical practitioner.
Article 189 (2) says that a person who is a member of the Advisory Council cannot be a member of the National Assembly and not less than three of the members so appointed shall be persons who are not public officers. Last year, former president Donald Ramotar came under fire for his decision to pardon a child killer, Ravindra Deo who was serving a life imprisonment sentence for killing 8 year-old Vishnu Bhim of Annandale East Coast Demerara in 1994. Prior to this sentence he was given the death penalty, which was later commuted to a life sentence. Deo was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering the eight year old child. He was convicted by a jury in December 1995 and sentenced to death by Justice Claudette Singh.
Ramotar in his defence said the decision to pardon Deo was based on representation made by the Prerogative of Mercy Advisory Council.