Trinidad and Tobago
We have been working in Trinidad and Tobago for more than three decades. In particular, our work has focused on supporting individuals facing the mandatory death penalty.
While significant progress has been made to restrict the use of capital punishment through our litigation, death sentences are still handed down automatically for murder convictions.
Trinidad and Tobago remains the only country in the Commonwealth Caribbean that retains the automatic death penalty for murder. Though the Government of Trinidad and Tobago have themselves publicly accepted that the mandatory death penalty is a cruel and inhumane punishment, and suggested their intentions to remove the mandatory death penalty through political routes, this has not yet happened.
We started working in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 1990s.
In 1993, approximately 60 people on death row in Trinidad and Tobago had their death sentences commuted to natural life imprisonment, or a period of 75 years. This was prompted by the landmark ruling in our case, Pratt & Morgan. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the highest appellate court for Trinidad and Tobago, limited the time a person can be kept under a death sentence in the Caribbean. The judgment ruled that holding someone on death row for more than five years constituted cruel and inhuman punishment.
However, many individuals who saw their death sentences commuted as a result of Pratt & Morgan were automatically resentenced to life imprisonment without their individual circumstances being taken into account. We have since challenged a huge number of these sentences through domestic and international litigation.
In 2014, we brought a case before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on behalf of Jainarine Persaud and ten others. We argued that the automatic imposition of a life sentences was unlawful given judges were unable to engage with mitigating evidence. Although the appeal was dismissed in 2017, related litigation opened new avenues for review.
In 2022, the Privy Council ruled that nine individuals whose death sentences had been commuted to life imprisonment could petition the High Court for individual resentencing. In 2024, the High Court imposed fixed-term sentences, leading to the immediate release of eight people.
More recently, we acted alongside local lawyers in securing the release of Wenceslaus James, the longest serving death row inmate in the country. Wenceslaus was released in November 2023, after having spent 24-years on death row. Throughout three decades in custody, he had experienced several traumatic events, including hearing the execution of nine other people.
In 2025, the High Court of Trinidad and Tobago ruled that the claimants in Xavier & Philip v The AG of Trinidad and Tobago had suffered serious breach of their constitutional rights and should be resentenced by a judge, taking the issue of resentencing out of the hands of the Executive.
Our tireless legal work has helped lead to this reshaping of sentencing practice, as part of our wider efforts to remove the mandatory death penalty and strengthen the rights of people in prison.
We continue to provide legal support to individuals facing the death penalty and to advocate for the abolition of the mandatory death sentence. Alongside strategic litigation, we engage in research and public advocacy to promote evidence-based dialogue about reform.