TRINIDAD SENDS THREE KILLERS TO THE GALLOWS

Three convicted murderers were executed in Trinidad yesterday, moments
after three senior British judges rejected a last-ditch appeal from two of
the men.

Dole Chadee, Joey Ramiah and Ramkalawan Singh, the first murderers to be
hanged in Trinidad for five years, were part of a drugs gang of nine found
guilty of killing four members of the Baboolal family in Williamsville,
Trinidad, in 1994. The other six gang members are expected to be hanged
today and Monday.

British lawyers, acting free of charge, tried hard to save the men from the
gallows.

The cases have shone a spotlight on the role of the judicial committee of
the privy council - the law lords wearing another hat which still acts as
the final court of appeal for Jamaica, Trinidad and some other former
colonies. The judges sit in Downing Street, central London, deciding the
fate of death row inmates in crime-ridden parts of the Caribbean, where the
local populace strongly supports the death penalty.

The Trinidad commissioner of prisons, Cipriani Baptiste, emerged from Royal
jail in Port of Spain three times between the first hanging at 6.05am and
the third at 8.44am. He said all three men had gone calmly to the noose,
and it had taken "about a minute" for each to die.

Spectators included several people whose friends or relatives had been
murder victims. They asked a lone man demonstrating against the death
penalty how he would feel if his wife's, children's or brother's throats
were slit.

The mood on the streets and on call-in radio programmes was sober and
reflective. Most people expressed satisfaction at the hangings; only a few
called them barbaric.

Trinidad, which has about 90 prisoners on death row, is leading Caribbean
nations in trying to set up a regional supreme court to replace the privy
council. The last man to be hanged was Glen Ashby in 1994, while the privy
council was still considering his case.

Trinidad's attorney general, Ramesh Maharaj, said the latest executions
were necessary to restore public confidence in the law. "The
non-implemention of the death penalty in the Caribbean has caused the
justice system to be undermined and for members of the public to question
it." A recent survey by the University of the West Indies found 75% of
people in Trinidad and Tobago had lost faith in the justice system.

Mr Maharaj, leader of the house of representatives, also rejected criticism
of the executions from groups such as Amnesty International. "There is a
misconception that the death penalty is a human rights issue, but it is not.

"The international declaration of human rights authorises states to carry
out the death penalty in accordance with the due process of law. Trinidad
and Tobago respects other countries where they decide what punishment fits
a particular crime, and we would expect others to do the same with
punishments decided upon by the sovereign people of Trinidad and Tobago.

"We got this punishment from the British and adopted it. If it is cruel and
unusual it must have been in the UK as well, but it's a lawful punishment
to be given by the state for serious crimes."

He said the cases had no bearing on the attempts to set up the regional
supreme court, which he predicted could be in place within a year.