Human Rights and the Mandatory Death Penalty in the Privy Council

Extract

At common law the penalty for murder was death. This simple rule came to apply to many territories of the Crown. It persisted, sometimes in modified form, in many territories now independent States. At independence such States adopted entrenched Constitutions heavily influenced by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The final appeal from several of these States lies to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.